New fees are coming to Moncus Park, and the majority of residents we talked to about it say they're upset.
The majority of people dislike the idea of having to pay for parking their vehicles at Moncus Park, but park officials say the park has to be maintained and expenses have to be paid.
According to the executive director of the Moncus Park the park is privately owned. Meaning the city’s tax dollars don't go towards funding of the park.
In order to keep maintenance and events the park needs funding.
“The daily operations of the park are not paid with tax dollars, so we need little income streams to cover those costs,” said JP MacFadyne.
Parking fees are a way to cover costs and have a daily stream of income for the Moncus Park, he said.
“So those come in a lot of different shapes and sizes so one of them is A nominal parking fee. Another will be the dog park which has a $10 annual fee for a dog park permit,” MacFadyne stated.
Moncus Park officials say the plan is to charge visitors by the hour for parking. Those charges will probably start in July, they say.
MacFadyne also says anyone walking or cycling into the park will not be charged a fee.
One resident of Lafayette, who often visits Moncus Park, says now that fees will be in place, she’ll change the number of times she attends Moncus Park.
“Paying a fee for the dog park and then paying a fee to go to the dog park will add up. But I will have to plan accordingly to go so I can afford to come on a regular basis,” said Katie Gauthier.
