During Monday’s Escambia County Commission meeting in Brewton, Rick Oates with the Alabama Forestry Commission brought some good news. The news was at 11 a.m. Saturday there will be a press event at Little River State Park that encompasses parts of both Escambia and Monroe counties.
Oates said the original plans are to open the park during the weekend during daylight hours only, with hopes of having the park open 24-7 in the future.
“We’re dipping our toe in the water,” is how Oates explained to the commission that the state is taking baby steps toward reopening the park.
Oates explained that operating state parks is not the primary function of the forestry commission, but that he was excited to see it open, even if it’s a limited basis.
State parks and national parks have been in the news a lot over the past several years and my bet is they will continue to be in news. The center of the news is money.
There are three sides to the equation. Some feel state and national parks should operate off of user fees; others feel tax dollars should be used to maintain the parks; and the third is a combination of both tax dollars and user fees.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has been catching heat from several sides for his flights across the country on the taxpayers’ dime while at the same time pushing to drastically increase the entry fees at most national parks.
Some of Zinke’s proposals call for doubling or tripling what it costs to get into some parks, like Yellowstone. The plan is to increase the price per car entering the park from about $25 or $30 to $70. The park service has already increased the lifetime pass for senior citizens from $10 to $80.
Zinke made one good point in a recent article I read. He noted that he recently took his children to the theater and after tickets, popcorn and drinks, he spent more than $80 for less than three hours of entertainment.
National parks are wonderful and should be kept affordable for people to visit and enjoy. I bring this up now because of Little River State Park. It’s a jewel of a place nestled in the deepest rural parts of Escambia and Monroe counties.
It’s been officially closed for about a year, but it’s all been but closed for several years. It was refreshing to hear Oates Monday talking about putting new life back into Little River. But as he noted, it’s going to be a project that takes multiple entities working together to make it work.
If you haven’t been to Little River State Park, show up Saturday and see what you’ve been missing. My bet is more and more people will jump on the bandwagon to make it successful.
