It’s about to get more expensive to park at the beach.
The Village of Empire voted 5-2 to implement a parking raise at Empire Beach from $1 to $2.
Linda Chase and Tom Rademacher voted no to strike the motion as March Dye put it to the floor and Meg Walton second, followed by yeas from Chris Webb and Maggie Bacon.
Last month, Empire successfully voted for the raise 4-3 with Empire President Sue Palmer breaking the tie. This month was for the implementation of signage, but trustees battled it out regardless.
“My question is, how can we build up the cost to justify $2? Are your costs accurate?” Rademacher asked trustee March Dye.
“I believe they are, yes,” Dye said.
Empire clerk Derith Smith chimed in and said the price jump is inaccurate.
“The entire budget for park maintenance wages up through May was entirely on the sidewalk (which is its own department),” she said. “The costs are significantly less. Probably less than half as much as has been projected.”
Bacon voted to strike down the measure at Empire’s June workshop meeting inferring that the raise would be a “money grab.”
The rates will go into effect next spring.
Cost of maintaining Empire Beach (yearly): parking meters ($1,000), paper and supplies ($350); credit card fees ($2,258); digital fees ($450); beach ambassadors ($14,892); parking lot striping ($1,900); supervision and office support ($6,000); DPW cleaning ($1,400); DPW general parking lot support ($2,000) for a total expenditures of $30,250.
Parking fees revenue in 2023 calculated $40,600.
Assuming that 2025 summer traffic will be the same, Empire could bring in as much as $80,000.
A one-car family could spend as much as $20 over 10 hours for a day at the beach.
Kyle Bond of the Michigan Rural Water Association presented to the Village of Empire board on Tuesday night to discuss water rates.
Water rates presentation Kyle Bond of the Michigan Rural Water Association presented to the Village of Empire board on Tuesday night to discuss water rates.
Bond suggested raising the price per 1,000 gallons from $55 to $57 residential and $100 to $104, representing a roughly 4% increase. This is a first draft of a study implored by the board.
The need for a raise Bond says is for maintenance on village wells that will be needed and costly. Bond says the current revenue maintains the status quo at least for now, but says the village needs to tuck away $40,000 a year over the next 10 years.
A complete rebuild of one of the village wells could cost upward of $60,000 to $80,000.
Empire uses roughly 18,000,000 million gallons a year amongst 400 yearly residents and thousands of summertime visitors.
“However we do it, we need to do it sensibly,” Bond said.
Empire is paying off a loan on its water system at a rate of $28,000 a year until 2045.
