Citizens of the state who are 62 and older will now have to pay admission to get into state parks, according to a recent bill approved by a Utah legislative committee.

The House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee approved the waiver to deny free entry to state parks for senior citizens.

The extra fees will help state parks fund operations hard-hit by budget cuts last year, said Rep. Bradley Johnson, R-Aurora, sponsor of the bill to the Salt Lake Tribune.

"Closing these parks caused a lot of trouble in Utah," he said. "Our citizens didn't want the parks closed. This is an effort to solve this problem."

Deena Loyola, public information officer of the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation, said they recently decided to approve this bill even though it wasn't something they wanted to do.

"This is a tough bill for us," she said. "We hoped that it wouldn't come to this."

Last year, the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation had to turn over three of its state parks to alternative management, because of funding problems, Loyola said.

Fort Buena Venture was turned over to Weber County, and Minersville to Beaver County. State Jordan River was turned over to Salt Lake City, she said.

"We've tried to make the cuts where we can without affecting the huge population," Loyola said.

The main benefit of charging everyone who enters a state is that it will help increase revenues, Loyola said.

In addition to turning parks over to the counties and Salt Lake City, the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation eliminated 30 positions, reduced its budget by 18 percent, and raised fees at some of the other higher visitation parks, she said.

"I think we will see a drop of visitations from that population," Loyola said. "I hope that's not the case. We really hope that seniors will continue their support of state parks, and we are asking everyone, from across the spectrum and regardless of age, to help support the state parks."

Louise Johnson, 72, an Orem resident, traveled with her family a lot a few years ago and visited many Utah state parks.

"I think that the parks are something that everybody loves, and we do have to help take care of them," Johnson said. "I don't think people mind paying a bit if it's kept up nice and if it's a nice place to go."



Copyright Brigham Young University 12 Feb 2003