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
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.
