Quote:
Originally Posted by BroadHopper
If hikers have to pay the rescue bill, shouldn't nonmotorized water craft owners should do the same? I think it is only fair.
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That's the alternative and I agree, it is fair. Either pay a small registration fee now or get socked with a huge bill for S&R services if and when you ever need them.
We all have car, home, boat, medical and life insurance, right? We're paying a lot of money for it, all the while hoping that we'll never need to actually use the insurance but if we do, the insurance takes care of the big bills. In this case, I would think of a registration fee as insurance; let's say $5-$10/yr to register versus $3000-$4000 bill for S&R services. I'm betting most of us would rather pay the annual fee than get hit with that huge S&R bill if and when we ever needed it.
As for "usage" fees, like Pineedles, I already pay to launch my boat at West Alton Marina (prior to that, Ames Farm Inn). If the state ever gets off their butt and builds a public ramp, THEN I could agree to paying a usage fee but until then, I'm already paying someone for the privilege of using a public body of water. And that's ON TOP of all the other fees I pay to register my MOTORboat; I don't see why canoers and kayakers can't share the load.
