The new Council voted unanimously Monday night to lower the beach entrance fee to $12 per person from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
The previous Town Council voted last October to increase the cost from $10 to $15 per person, following recommendations from a town advisory board that a hike was necessary to keep up with additional expenses.
Council president Jesse Pugh called the decision a compromise.
“It’s still a 20 percent increase over what it was,” Pugh said during the meeting. “It’s going with inflation, general price increases, but not doing what I consider extreme: a 50 percent increase.”
A town recreation advisory board had suggested a fee hike in light of the new increase in the state’s minimum hourly wage to $11.50 that went into effect Oct. 1, 2020.
“Our operations are increasing every year,” Parks and Recreation Director Steven Wright said Monday night. “Nothing’s going down.”
In addition to wage increases, Wright said the beach will see new expenses from the creation of an additional lifeguard chair for the 2021 season.
Revenue from beach admission fees and parking fund the Town Beach’s operating budget. Pugh said the beach regularly brings in a profit of several hundred thousand dollars and carries a balance in the seven figures.
“So we’re not talking about barely scraping by,” Pugh said. “We profit well beyond our operational costs each year.”
During a public comment period, resident Mary Nadeau said she would like to see the council go further and reduce beach fees to $10 or less per person.
“I don’t think you need to make money on the beach every single year,” Nadeau said. She suggested dipping into the beach’s enterprise fund to cover costs when the economy is struggling and people have less spending money.
On Monday, the council also voted to undo a decision to increase daily parking lot fees from $10 on weekdays and $15 on weekends to $20 every day, and reopened evening parking to non-residents between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. The evening restrictions were put in place last summer in hopes of curbing the spread of COVID-19 and extended last fall.
The rule changes had been unpopular among advocates for shoreline access, who said they would further restrict beachgoers. Advocates also accused town officials last summer of using the pandemic as an opportunity to make Narragansett Town Beach more exclusive.
Alex Nunes can be reached at anunes@thepublicsradio.org.
