GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The free ride is over for non-residents at some Georgetown Township parks.
At the township’s June 13 meeting, the board approved an admission of $5 per adult and $3 per child with no maximum at Maplewood and 8th Avenue Parks.
The fees kick in July 1 at 8th Avenue Park (7050 8th Avenue) and July 8 at Maplewood Park (8000 12th Avenue).
“These changes were made to offset increasing costs to cover general maintenance costs, trash removal costs, and park attendant wages,” said township supervisor Rob Blitchok.
The reaction online to the fees were mixed.
“I don’t see what the problem is,” said one commenter. “Clearly they’re attempting to lower the amount of traffic in the park.”
And it may well work to do that. At Maplewood Park on Thursday, Lauren Gowen and her two kids were battling the heat in the cool waters of the park’s splashpad. Gowen is from Grand Rapids and came to check out Maplewood Park for the first time before they begin charging next week.
“I think there’s a lot of other waterparks in the area that are free, so I’m not sure if a lot of people will come back to pay,” Gowen said, who wasn’t a fan of the no-maximum fee policy. “I could see like, a price per car maybe, but it sounds like there’s no maximum so I’m not sure I would come back. I’d probably go to a different one that isn’t charging.”
It was the same story for Allyson Scott, going with the try-before-you-buy model with her kids at the nearby jungle gym.
“We saw that they were starting to charge next week so we were like, we’d better squeeze it in before they start,” she said. “It was fun, it was a nice park, but I was kind of surprised that they were going to start charging.”
Maplewood and 8th Avenue are two of nine parks in the township and Blitchok told MLive that those two were chosen because of consistent visitor volume.
While the goal is to keep the park clean and safe, for non-residents, it may not be a price worth paying.
“Not being from Jenison,” said Scott, “I don’t think I would pay to come here. And I think there’s plenty of other parks near me that I would go to for free.”
