09-26-2007, 06:17 AM
Shane, It is easy to see both sides here.
This is just a rambling thought from someone who doesn't have a trailered boat right now, and doesn't like to swim at boat ramps at this stage of my life (OF), but who has in many other states (it happens at a lot of them, but not at heavily used ones with ramp personnel..& ramp fees for trailering...)
I do not know the commercial load currently on the ramp, but by your own admission, you pay somewhere around $5,000 for the commercial use of the ramp for both of your boats for the year.
That is not enough to pay for much more than the general maintenance of the grounds, far less than commercial rental of a building, and far less than the cost of a lifeguard.
The county is currently spending tens to hundreds of years of your boat taxes (i.e. hundreds of thousand dollars) on the facilities at the boat ramp....unless there are hundreds of commercial users to offset this cost & pay for staffing, the monies to maintain a safe operation may just have to be part of your cost of business. If there are other commercial operators you deal with, perhaps you could form a collition to pay for safety personnel at the ramp, if not, this may need to be part of your cost of doing business in a safe & friendly way (I do not know the rate that you will charge for the larger boat, but upping it $10 a person (maybe a 10% increase) should provide you with the daily increase to pay for one to two trained safety officers for the ramp passage....Just a thought)
IDEA:I do know that in the 2 years we have lived here, the county Parks & Rec dept. has yet to have all of their Lifeguard & Water Safety Officer positions filled, and that they have even had to limit some of their activities because of the general lack of trained, available WSO personel (Sparky pool was closed over the last year & this eased the shortage a bit, but it is open again....) Perhaps you (or the boater colalition) could even look at offering 'WSO' Scholarships to increase the trained employee pool...This may make going to the county for the position a little easier...
This is just a rambling thought from someone who doesn't have a trailered boat right now, and doesn't like to swim at boat ramps at this stage of my life (OF), but who has in many other states (it happens at a lot of them, but not at heavily used ones with ramp personnel..& ramp fees for trailering...)
I do not know the commercial load currently on the ramp, but by your own admission, you pay somewhere around $5,000 for the commercial use of the ramp for both of your boats for the year.
That is not enough to pay for much more than the general maintenance of the grounds, far less than commercial rental of a building, and far less than the cost of a lifeguard.
The county is currently spending tens to hundreds of years of your boat taxes (i.e. hundreds of thousand dollars) on the facilities at the boat ramp....unless there are hundreds of commercial users to offset this cost & pay for staffing, the monies to maintain a safe operation may just have to be part of your cost of business. If there are other commercial operators you deal with, perhaps you could form a collition to pay for safety personnel at the ramp, if not, this may need to be part of your cost of doing business in a safe & friendly way (I do not know the rate that you will charge for the larger boat, but upping it $10 a person (maybe a 10% increase) should provide you with the daily increase to pay for one to two trained safety officers for the ramp passage....Just a thought)
IDEA:I do know that in the 2 years we have lived here, the county Parks & Rec dept. has yet to have all of their Lifeguard & Water Safety Officer positions filled, and that they have even had to limit some of their activities because of the general lack of trained, available WSO personel (Sparky pool was closed over the last year & this eased the shortage a bit, but it is open again....) Perhaps you (or the boater colalition) could even look at offering 'WSO' Scholarships to increase the trained employee pool...This may make going to the county for the position a little easier...