Some of your tax dollars go to pay for parks but in Carter Lake, Mayor Gerald Waltrip said it’s not enough to keep repairing what vandals tear up.
Waltrip is proposing charging Carter Lake residents an annual $20 fee if they use the city parks and that same amount per day for visitors who live outside city limits.
The visitors would have to buy the pass and put a sticker on their vehicles according to Waltrip.
The bathrooms are now bolted shut because Waltrip said people kept tearing up what was inside, “It's terrible to describe what they do when they get in there.”
Right now visitors have to use port-a-potties outside, “We're just trying to keep our parks nice,” said Waltrip.
Waltrip believes the troublemakers are not from within the city limits, “Believe me there's never more Iowa plates than Nebraska; it's always reversed”.
Carter Lake resident Steve Sayler walks his dog Pepper at least twice a day in Wavecrest Park and has reservations on this proposal, “I think the mayor needs to work on his idea on how he can practically accomplish that.”
20-year-old resident Jesse Dady doesn’t think this will help with the vandalism problem, “There's little punks around here that think they can get away with whatever they want”.
Waltrip said an outside group to lease the parks could take over this responsibility.
Another proposal could be to add security cameras in the parks which is what some city council members are looking into.
The Carter Lake city council meets in September to go over this proposal.
