Attention to Brown county folks

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 7:51 pm

Thanks for the info, srvive. (And welcome to the forums!)

The Community Education Committee has been notified of this and should be getting on top of things. If you would like to help out with this or nay of the other items of business that will come that way, volunteer to help in the Announcements Forum!

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

There was an article in the GB press about the proposed fee. I wrote a note to Mr. Hartman and got the following reply. Looks like this is a done deal:

Thank you for your recent communication regarding geocache permit fees. Currently the Education and Recreation Committee of the Brown County is reviewing the fee policy that was instituted last summer. The next meeting had been tentatively scheduled for June 7th. You can get updated meeting times and schedules at http://www.co.brown.wi.us/county_board/schedule.htm. Any change in fee structure must receive county board approval. If you wish to have your opinion heard on this issue, feel free to attend the next meeting since we plan to put this topic on the agenda.

Our department feels that is good policy to have geocache locations approved by our staff. We wish to make sure that caches are placed in safe areas, but also would not want them placed in environmentally sensitive areas, refuge areas, etc. To have control over locations we would require that a person planning to establish a cache fill out an application and be the “sponsor”. That way we have a responsible person to meet to establish the initial location and then have someone to call if something needs to be addressed. From my research, I have found this to be a very common practice for publicly owned lands.

As an extension of this application, to cover a portion of the administrative costs, a $5.00 annual fee for the “sponsor” was established. User fees are an important source of funding for our department; we have various trail fees, shelter/grounds rental fees, private access fees, boat launch fees, etc. We certainly rely upon these various fees to supplement our tax levy so we can continue to offer the quantity and quality of park facilities for county residents.

Thank you for your viewpoint. Again I would encourage you to voice your opinion at the next Education and Recreation Committee – the committee will typically open the floor to citizens if they know someone is there to address an issue.

Sincerely,

Doug Hartman
Brown County Facility and Park Management

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 8:24 pm

What some fools.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-04-09 Posts: 7

Although I don't live or generally play in Brown County, I expect this will be an easy and silent way for other counties to impose another user tax. This happens frequently with other items (1/2% sales tax anyone?). Silently slip it in on a weekday board meeting, with no representation.. that's what I expect. It's easy to pick on a "niche" use. From what I see, Frisbee golfers cause far more impact than other folks.

Maybe we should bill back for the CITO events, after all we are performing a service (sarcasm). I am disturbed by the general apathy, most folks only shrug their shoulders and say "it's only a few dollars", and let the ridiculous rules be done. That's how the stadium tax stayed after the stadium was done, and other use fees get slipped in, one by one.

I will monitor things in my county (outagamie), but unless you get the local paper, read it each day, and look for the fine print of the local government section, you will miss it.

Have we done some proactive community outreach to those counties that have not already made this decision?

WGA Member Joined: 2007-07-27 Posts: 4

My wife and I just started caching after buying a handheld GPS for our boat. We placed a few of our own caches in Shawano County near our cottage and I just finished placing one at the disc golf course in Kaukauna. I had to fill out a DNR form and fax it to Shawano Park and Rec. I talked with them over the phone and it seemed simple.
I talked to the Park and Rec Director in Kaukauna and they do not have any fee or paperwork required. However, I was made aware this is an up and coming concern being talked about amongst park and rec directors at different locations.
Landreman's questions and concerns were not so much fees or paperwork, but rather who is going to collect this info and how is it going to be maintained and for what real purpose. I could tell he was concerned, but did not really feel the need yet.

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:14 pm

Maybe I'm being a smart-butt,...
but couldn't these individual parks & rec persons just enter their zip at GC once in awhile to make sure everything's copacetic?

GC collects info, cacher maintains.

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:33 pm

What!??? These are BUREAUCRATS! Paper, Paper, Paper!!!