Thursday, July 10, 2008

Lake Casitas User Fees To Increase

$800,000 deficit prompts rise in recreational fees

By Daryl Kelley
Faced with a burgeoning budget deficit, directors of the Lake Casitas Recreation Area voted this week to hike an array of fees charged to customers at their popular lakeside camping grounds and water park.
Beginning Sept. 2, the fee for a vehicle to enter the park off Baldwin Road will increase from $8 to $10 and charges for a camp site will jump from $19 every day to $25 for weekdays and $30 for weekends and holidays.
The charge to launch a boat will also escalate from $7 a day to $10, while the basic charge to hook up a recreational vehicle to drinking water and electricity will jump from $30 to $35 and $40, depending on time of week.
For kids, the popular Water Adventure summer water park remains affordable. A season pass will increase from $70 to $75, and daily entry will stay the same at $12. Daily fees for kayaks will remain a bargain at $3, with annual passes still costing just $30.
“I hope we’re not shooting ourselves in the foot,” said director Bill Hicks. “There is an elasticity in the demand (if the rates go too high). The thing that bothers me the most are the tents: Those usually are people who can’t afford it.”
But Steve Wickstrum, general manager of Casitas Municipal Water District, which operates the park, said the district had no choice. Facing an $800,000 deficit in an annual Recreation Area budget of about $3.5 million, the district can cover about $400,000 of that red ink by slashing overhead expenses and hiking fees, he said.
The remaining $400,000 deficit will have to be made up with a transfer from district reserve accounts or the district’s general fund, which is supported by water customer fees and property taxes.
The Recreation Area, which has always made money, is facing a large deficit for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which began this month, because for the first time accountants deducted about $600,000 in depreciation costs from its net profit. That depreciation must be set aside to cover costs of maintaining the park’s attractions in future years.
Without the depreciation write-down, the park made a profit of about $200,000.
District directors said at a hearing Tuesday that their goal remains for the Recreation Area to be self-supporting. And they were bothered by the deficit.
“That $400,000 deficit is not theory, it’s reality … How am I supposed to get my arms around this $400,000 deficit,” Director Russ Baggerly asked Wickstrum.
But Wickstrum said Recreation Area labor and overhead expenses have been cut to the bone in the new budget, and that Casitas might price itself out of the market if fees were raised higher than the board has now approved.
“I think we’ve gone about as far as we can on these fees,” Wickstrum said.
For example, Casitas’ daily vehicle fees of $15 on weekends will be higher than the $10 charged at Lake Piru, $11 at Castaic Lake and $8 at Lake Cachuma, and weekend tent campsites will also cost more than at those competing lakes. Daily boat fees will be about the same as competitors’.
Wickstrum said, however, that there are other unknowns about balancing the budget, even with the fee increases.
He said the soaring cost of fuel could keep visitors home and that restrictions on the use of boats at Lake Casitas, because of the threat of contamination by migrating quagga mussels, could reduce revenue, although it hasn’t so far.
The biggest source of the Recreation Area’s $3.5 million in revenue each year is boat fees, providing about $1.5 million, while ticket sales at the water park account for $650,000. Daily vehicle visits provide about $500,000, and camping $150,000. A sharp drop in any of those areas would cripple the budget.
“I think this is something we’re going to have to closely monitor,” said Director Pete Kaiser.
A positive, Wickstrum said, is that future recreation area budgets will not be so affected by depreciation write-offs. This year’s budget took a hit because depreciation had not been adequately covered in the past, he said.
The Recreation Area is open from sunup until sundown seven days a week all year long.
In other action Tuesday, Casitas directors moved to allow kayaks and canoes greater access to the lake despite a ban on outside watercraft unless they meet strict standards to prevent mussel infestation.
The board approved five methods by which kayak owners may access the lake, while assuring their craft have not been used in other lakes.
Owners may store kayaks at the lake for a small fee, $1 per foot of craft length per month. They may use district-approved tags and cables to attach the craft to a trailer, a wheeled carrier or another kayak, so any unapproved use could be detected because the lock tag would be destroyed when the craft is detached.
Or, under a method devised by Oak View resident Steve Grumette, the kayaker or canoeist could attach the craft to the roof of his car via a PVC pipe-and-cable rack. Grumette, a 35-year kayaker, said he would produce the roof rack-and-lock mechanism for $50 to $70 each.
“Once it’s publicized there’s an unknown number of kayakers out there who’ll be interested,” said Grumette, a professional filmmaker who is also artistic director of the Ojai Film Festival.
“There are many who don’t want their kayaks stored at the lake, where they are short of room, or don’t want to have it lock to their cars,” he said. “So this would work for them.”

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have they ever thought about charging for local residents (Ojai, Mira Monte, Mainers Oaks, Oak View, Casitas Springs) just $3.00 to drive inside the park? I would go there probably every weekend to feed ducks with my tougher and have a snack at the seaside restaurant. But with a price of $8-10 for an hour to go there, I am only doing this one or two times a year. But then they are maybe not interested on locals to go there.

Anonymous said...

You can get in for free if you tell them you are going to the restaurant. This is true for everyone.

Your problem is solved. But your post has a sullen edge of hostility and victimhood, that maybe you prefer to hang onto.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if they charge to use that walking path that's next to the highway that goes all the way to the dam? I would like to take my dog for walks there, but paying $8 each time is out of the question.

Anonymous said...

I have bin there many times and talked to the person on the gate that I am going to feed ducks and go to the restaurant. So far they have failed to say anything about that I do not have to pay to drive into the park.

Anonymous said...

The charge is per vehicle. There is no charge for walking in.

Anonymous said...

There is no charge for walking in but there is no where to park. The free spots that they used to offer are no longer for parking. It is marked no parking.

Rick Raine said...

It is unfortunate that the fees will be increasing. I spoke briefly with Directors Baggerly and Kaiser after the meeting ( I was late getting to the meeting because of work), and they expressed their sincere reluctance to raise the fees, but felt that it was necessary.
My concerns are for the families that are already cash strapped. I remember during the late 80's when I was going through difficult times and camping and fishing (from shore)at Lake Casitas was about the only affordable recreation we could do. With the current economy, especially gas prices, low income families will be priced out. This seems contrary to the CMWD Board of Directors stated goal to continue making the Recreation Area more family attractive.
Another concern I have are for the homeless. I know for a fact that there are families and individuals who stay at Lake Casitas, as well as other local campgrounds. They do so because the costs are, or were, affordable. Lake Casitas was also safe. Pricing these individuals out of their ability to pay the camping fees puts them at higher risk of exposure to illegal camping citations by law enforcement. It also increases their exposure of being victims of serious crimes.
It was a sad day for all to increase the fees.

Anonymous said...

I do not think the first comment sounds hostile! I think #1 has a great idea! And also the people who work the gate are NOT forthcoming with offering up the info that you can go to the Marina Cafe without paying the current price of $8 to enter. I had a personal experience where my daughter bought my husband and I a gift certificate for $80 so we could buy an annual pass for the express purpose of going to the Cafe. No one bothered to tell her there was no need to pay to get in for that purpose!

Anonymous said...

I think it is typical that the rates are going up. They paniced over the quagga mussels, and lost a bunch. Had they of thought their mussel control through instead of acting on panic, or just plain reacting they could have saved a small fortune. I fish lake Casitas all the time. I have been fishing there for years. I know myself that I was a bit put out with their resolution for the mussel issue. I think the cable thing is fine, but they have put a $50.00 charge on about @15.00 of cable & lock. I know this upset a lot of local, and seasonal fishermen that frequented the lake in the past. Hence, they are actually just going elsewhere, and almost boycotting the lake. So to make up for missing that moneys they are going to raise the rates to un-afforable to lower income people, so they will lose more money. Soon you will be able to get a motel room cheaper than you can get a day pass at lake Casitas.