$10 to $20 ramp increase
 

Meredith's five selectman have just raised the Town's boat launch fees from ten to twenty dollars for everyone without a town facilities sticker. So, as I understand it, the price of launching and later retrieving a boat on a trailer down and up the ramp will be twenty plus twenty for a total of forty dollars.

I'm pretty sure that hand carrying a kayak or canoe to the launch ramp without using a trailer and attached vehicle is no charge. This can be accomplished by parking your vehicle in a parking spot and simply carrying the kayak from its' roof rack to the launch area. I have done that a few times with a kayak and was told by the uniformed town employee that hand carries without a trailer was not considered a chargable boat launch and therefore it was 'no charge.'

And, they also raised the price of the town faclities sticker which is available to property owners for use of the transfer station, and boat ramps, from ten to twenty dollars.

With the State of NH now no longer sharing its' 8% rooms and meals taxes, Meredith will come up short by about $350,000, and it expects to raise $30,000 with the facilities sticker increase.

So, forty dollars in total launch fees for a day tripper, in & out, boat launch & retrieval in Meredith at Shep Brown's on Meredith Neck, or Town Docks on Route 3, but probably still zero at Leavitt Park. Isn't that the same amount that Ames Farm charges? $40 seems very expensive and could drive boaters up the road to Center Harbor where their high quality launch ramp is ten dollars, plus the fee-taker runs a nice clean, hot dog & chips cart:D

For launching a kayak or canoe, I think that the Cattle Landing parking lot, way down Meredith Neck, opposite the south end of Bear Island is the best spot around. There is no launch ramp for trailer launching and no one to collect any fees., What's there is a one acre, dirt parking lot that's very close, just across the road, from the large concrete & timber, town dock, a pay telephone, and a somewhat steep but short path for launching kayaks, canoes, small sailboats, wind surfers, and in the winter; snowmobiles, atv's, and bob houses.:)

At Ames Farm, the fee covered in and out the same day. So if you were charged $20 and retrieved the boat that same day, you would not be charged an additional $20.

Fee increases
 

I may be wrong but I thought the fee was for launch only. When I saw the town transfer fee collection to Brown's I thought $10 wasn't enough to make it worth their while. Before that I thought there was no way the town was taking in enough money to pay for the attendant. I think raising the fee to $20 is a good idea as it does help offset costs and I can't imagine it would prevent anyone from launching at the town ramps.

As for the facility fee we've been paying $10 for a two year period. Doubling it to $20 is not going to create a hardship.

Given that the cost of everything else has gone up I think the first increases since 1990 is probably long overdue.

Rick

Alton is still free
 

The Town ramp in Alton Bay is still a free public resource.

No Rick, you are correct. It is a single fee for launching. Therefore it will be $20 total, not the $40 surmised by FLL.

Also FLL is wrong when he says that the State is no longer sharing the rooms & meals tax. The Governor, in his budget proposal, has suggested the State no longer share the revenue but the Legislature has yet to pass a budget with this caveat contained within. Many Cities & towns are calculating the possible impact and advising their citizens of such during their own respective budget deliberations. However, as of this date nothing has changed.

Whenever FLL says "...so, as I understand it..." it is always a good measure to take the next few sentences delivered with a healthy grain of salt....;)

Entrepreneur
 

Some years ago there was a young fellow at the Center Harbor docks with a card table and lawn chair. He was taking the ten bucks from the people launching, helping them out and giving a recipt.

Oddly enough, he was not a town employee, just a kid "working his way" through college!

Yup. There's a sucker born every minute!

Misty Blue

Hey Skip, there was a front page article earlier this week, like maybe on Tuesday, in the Laconia Daily Sun which talked about the Meredith $350,000 short by the state. It seemed to make it clear that the governor can decide to change the local distribution money-sharing rate of the 8% meals & lodging tax and did not mention that it required an act by the legislature. Judging from the comments of the selectmen, in reaction to a new $350,000 shortage, it sure sounded like a done deal.

Rooms & Meals tax
 

The Governor has proposed, through his annual budget request, to have the State retain all revenues generated from the 8% roomms & meals tax and further to increase the tax from it's current 8% to a new level of 8.75%.

The Governor in this State has virtually no independent powers, having almost all of his executive actions requiring ratification from the Executive Council and his budgetary requests must be passed into law by the legislature.

No, the governor cannot arbitrarily raise the romms & meals tax, nor can he re-direct those revenues without authorization from the legislature.

There have been many articles in the past few weeks discussing the Governor's wish to keep all rooms & meals tax money in Concord, and no longer share this revenue directly with local communities. Many of these same communities are deep into their budget process and hence are concerned about this potential loss of revenue, and are adjusting their budget requests accordingly. In none of the articles I have read, including the one you cite, have I seen anyone declaring this change has taken place or that the Governor can implement such a change by himself.