GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — In its first year, Bay Beach’s premier parking program generated a little less than half the revenue the city had hoped for. Guests were charged $7 to park in the lot closest to the main entrance.
“We were hoping to generate about $30,000 in revenue through our premier parking program at Bay Beach Amusement Park. In the end we generated just under $14,000. So, a little bit less than half of what we were hoping for,” said Green Bay Parks, Recreation & Forestry Director, Dan Ditscheit.
However, Ditscheit said determining the program’s success depends on your interpretation.
“In my opinion, it’s still that comes out to about 2,000 cars that paid admission. So, it’s a service we provided to 2,000 carloads of people who wanted that service,” he said.
The revenue generated will go toward park maintenance. A capital improvement plan presented to Green Bay’s Finance Committee last week lists projects such as an east train ride rebuild, paving and siding replacements.
Not everybody who visited Bay Beach followed the rules of the premier lot. Ditscheit added that from May to Sept. the city handed out 180 tickets. That was for offenses such as not paying for a premium spot or parking in a handicapped spot without a permit among others. The city charges an initial fee of $24 for failure to pay public parking fees and an initial fee of $304 dollars for parking in a handicapped spot without a permit.
Ditscheit says he isn’t sure if the premier parking program will return in 2027.
“We haven’t made any decisions moving forward for next year. We probably won’t make that decision until we get closer to springtime before we decide what we’re going to do. But our options are, you know, there’s several ways we can go with it. One is we can continue down the path we are charging $7 per stall per day, we can decrease the amount that somebody has to pay per day or we can eliminate the program altogether,” said Ditscheit.
