State parks look at charging you more to visit

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But when a park ranger demanded a $2 admission fee for each member of his family, Porter decided to forgo the walk. He had been using the park free all his life, he said, and he doesn't plan to return as long as the fee is charged.

"I enjoy parks," the 60-year-old Pickens County resident said. "It's a good place to go to get away from home and have a good time. But it's not right to take advantage of people."

Rep. Robert Brown, a Charleston County Democrat who sits on the House committee that handles environmental issues, said he doesn't believe state government should operate as a business.

While he was not familiar with the park system's plans, he said, "Our responsibility is to offer service."

Porter and other outdoor enthusiasts are distressed about the government's desire to become more business-like in running South Carolina's 46 recreation areas.

Those plans, still under discussion, include charging higher rates based on the season and even day of the week, while offering discounts at other times of the year, the state agency's executive director said.

The parks may have fewer state dollars to use for the fiscal year beginning in July because of the state's budget problems. And the money there is will be distributed differently, said Chad Prosser, executive director of the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

Some money once spent on salaries will go for building projects. Parks will have to cut expenses or find a way to bring in more income to make up the difference, Prosser said. Some employees may lose their jobs.

"It has to do with getting more customers coming to the parks and the customers who are coming, offering them additional services, making more money off the things we sell, like our retail operations, our golf courses, our fishing piers," Prosser said. He came to the job last year from Horry County, where he worked as the managing partner of a golf club resort and was County Council chairman.

Officials also are considering turning over certain operations to private companies, to promote the parks more and to offer discounts to draw more visitors during nonpeak seasons, he said. The parks last year had 7.5 million visitors, down from the 8.1 million visitors the year before.

"Parks are not only for recreation and preservation and stewardship but they also serve an important social function," said Dell Isham, director of the Sierra Club's South Carolina chapter. "And I'm concerned with pricing people out of their public parks."

The park system is among the most self-sufficient in the nation, relying on visitors' fees, cabin rentals, concessions and other revenue to pay almost two-thirds of the $16 million annual operating costs.

Almost $9 million came from state tax dollars last year. But Gov. Mark Sanford has asked that amount be trimmed by $1.4 million by turning over some park operations such as gift shops, eateries and golf operations to private contractors.

Prosser said the remaining amount would be split between personnel and overhead costs and building projects. All of the money previously went to personnel and overhead, he said.

"The problem with that is we have not reinvested in the system in capital facilities as well as other needs of the system," he said, "so we're looking at redistributing those dollars a little and challenging our folks to find some efficiencies."

Prosser wants to spend money to make money in the parks, building more cabins to be used by cash-carrying tourists and corporate officials.

Isham said spending operating dollars to build cabins while the system has a $100 million maintenance backlog is not a good idea.

But Prosser said the agency is working on the backlog and the new cabins could help bring the parks new money.

At Cheraw State Park, building new cabins could attract corporate retreats since the park already has a golf course, he said. Other parks such as Hunting Island that have cabins could easily fill more, he said.

Most of the parks operate at a loss, he said, and while there are no plans to close any of them, he believes the state can improve by spending the money it has differently.

"You have general fund tax dollars that go to support the park system, which is entirely appropriate," he said. "But we want to use that money in the most effective way to produce a product for our customers in the state."

That could mean running some of the state's busiest parks like resort hotels or private campgrounds, he said. Visitors might be charged higher fees during weekends and in the busiest seasons, and offered discounts at other times.

"We tend to have a very simple pricing system that is the same price all year round and isn't terribly responsive to the actual market," he said.

Dennis Chastain, a 50-year-old naturalist who grew up in the shadow of Table Rock, doesn't believe the state will reverse its decision to charge admission fees.

"I personally look at the parks as a birthright," he said. "Throughout my lifetime, I have always enjoyed the privilege of being able to go into any state park in South Carolina and enjoy whatever resources were there at basically no cost."

Porter, who has visited campgrounds throughout the United States and Canada, is open to new ideas.

"I can understand paying more for a place where there's more to see and more to do," he said. "But $2 a person just to take a walk or take a picture or have a picnic is too much.

Marion Edmunds, a PRT spokesman, said officials are still studying the impact of last year's fee increases but said the new fees have not caused any large drop in attendance. He said officials also are pleased that in many parks where the fees are paid on an honor system in drop boxes, visitors appear to be complying. The fees stay in the parks where they are paid, he said.

Porter suggested the state look into using campground hosts for more park duties, as he said Canadian parks do. He said some parks and their staff could also be mothballed during winter months when attendance is low.

Chastain said for years, he and his wife would get away for a winter weekend to the coast, spending a day walking on the beach. When a park employee asked for $4 this year, he said the magic of the beach disappeared. They won't return, he said.

"I think it's fundamentally wrong," he said.