State park surveys ask about fees

Wyoming State Park, Historic Sites and Trails recently released their 2017 survey, which is available at the Hot Springs State Park Bath House. The survey asks whether people would be willing to support an increase in the entrance fee at the park. Currently, there is no entrance fee.

Park Superintendent Kevin Skates said there are surveys every other year which ask people about the amenities in the park, and what they do or don’t like about it. This is the first time he’s seen the survey about the fees, and further added they have to have so many filled out, so they receive bundles of the surveys for June, July and August.

Surveys are also sent out for the Legend Rock petroglyph site.

All visitors to the bath house, whether they be local or from out of town, are asked to fill out a survey. It states, “State Parks and Historic Sites have not raised the fees since 2008. Inflation and increasing costs continue to reduce their budget making it difficult to maintain facilities and implement improvements.”

It further notes that 100 percent of fees collected “go directly to operating and making improvements,” and asks if people would be willing to support increases in entrance and camping fees — one-time and annual — and to what amount.

The final question is the key one for Hot Springs State Park, Skates said, as it asks whether people would be willing to pay entrance fees at non-fee sites.

Skates said there was talk of charging an entrance fee about 15 years back, and people were not happy. The park will currently remain a non-fee site, and Skates said Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails will likely have information next spring as to whether that will change.

Another aspect to consider is the 1896 treaty signed with the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes, under which a portion of the hot spring water would remain free to the public. That portion is the free-to-use bath house. If people were to pay to get into the park, it could be seen as they are having to pay for that water.

Skates did not have information as to how the entrance fees would be handled, considering the number of people who have to drive through it as part of their regular routes, or how the fee would affect the treaty.