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5 By Will Pafford, Staff Writer
The fee for reserving the pavilion in Rollingwood Municipal Park is now $75 for nonresidents, an increase from the previous $50.
The City Council approved the increase after Parks Commission Chairwoman Kelli Carlton presented the commission’s recommendation to raise the fee during the City Council meeting on May 20.
Carlton said the previous Council asked the Parks Commission to consider raising the fee to discourage use by nonresidents, but not to an unreasonable rate.
Residents do not have to pay a fee to reserve and use the pavilion, but both residents and nonresidents must pay a refundable $100 deposit.
Alderman John Hinton said the former fee was obviously below market value because the pavilion was fully reserved.
He said he would like the Parks Commission to consider raising the fee high enough to discourage use by nonresidents and also reflect the wear and tear of the building.
Carlton said the price for a similar facility in Austin is $60.
If the fee is too high, people will just show up and neither pay nor agree to the rules of the pavilion, Carlton said.
Now people pay and sign a copy of the pavilion’s rules when they want to reserve and use the facility, she said.
“We have created for ourselves a complex problem,” Hinton said.
Alderman Bill Hamilton said the spirit of the Council’s approval was to raise the fee and consider raising it again in the future in order to encourage Rollingwood residents to use the pavilion while discouraging use by nonresidents.
The fee increase was approved unanimously.
I am a new resident in the City of Rollingwood and love the Park facilities. I am embarrassed by the attitude John Hinton has towards non resident park visitors. He needs to remember that it is a City park- not a park in a gated community. I am certain many Rollingwood residents use many park facilities in Austin and other areas- how would we feel if we were discouraged from using their parks simply because of our address???
John Hinton needs to think before he speaks.
I’ve never heard of recreation management that includes ‘discouraging’ the use of a city park.
The Rollingwood park is a public park and will remain public. There is no evidence that anyone, including any of the current city aldermen, wish to somehow privatize public land. John Hinton certainly does not want that. A fee to use the pavilion has always been in place. Raising it to help offset the maintenance costs bourne by Rollingwood taxpayers seems reasonable. This is done by other cities including the city of Austin for its pavilion in Zilker park. It does not seem to be such a huge issue. Rollingwood park is also different from Zilker in that it is supported by a very small tax base and is sized and to serve a smaller neighborhood. That should also be kept in mind.
No one wants to make Rollingwood a gated community.
Yes but John Hinton needs to think about how he sounds when he speaks…. “discourage non-resident usage” speaks for itself.
All they had to say was- we feel the fee is too low for the amenities provided. City of Austin has never said- discourage non residents…
Hmmm. Lets compare: The Rollingwood city administrator deliberately chooses NOT to provide handicapped accessible restrooms in city hall (while spending $10,000 on remodeling them) which shows she doesn’t care about people and so DISCOURAGES CITY HALL USAGE BY THE HANDICAPPED. Maybe she should say the handicapped just are not important and the $10,000 is better spent on remodeling the restrooms for only nonhandicapped users and no one else. Health, safety, welfare, common decency, and the law. Absent in Rollingwood city hall.
But instead lets ARGUE about the park fees for the pavilion rental and go after alderman Hinton (again). Now THAT make sense.