Ft. Desoto considering an admission fee...

[H]

Originally Posted by Skyway Scott

I gotta agree. No biggie. If it means not having the ice cream stands, restaurants, a non-public marina, etc (anyone remember that fiasco), I am all four (bucks) it.
Not a big price to pay, imo, to keep it a park and keep it natural.
I am just glad we have one spot in this whole area that doesn't have a friggin' condo on it.
Maybe they will do a 15 dollar year pass? They did that at St. Augustine for the beach passes for Fl residents.

Yeah, I predicted then that a fee was on it's way. I'm all for the fee too, but there should definitely be a annual pass available.

As for a parking charge, I hope they don't do that, because it will have one of two results. Either we'll end up with a lot of people parking down in our spot to avoid the charge, or the park will stop allowing people to park outside of the lots and that just doesn't make sense at all for Desoto. It's really a silly idea anyway, they should just make a single fee to get in.

I suspect parking at East Beach will now be off limits... this includes big beach as well, which sucks

HOWEVER... Jim (head ranger) is an understanding guy and is friendly with the kite boarders. We may be able to work something out with him if it becomes a problem.

Uh oh. How did we go from an increased toll rate to no parking at EB?
I hope this doesn't happen.

Jim Wilson is Park Superintendent/Supervisor. Seems like a pretty good job.
http://www.floridasportsman.com/features/060120/

check out the bonus pics (number 6).
www.floridasportsman.com/bonus/photos/060120_bonus/index5.html
Kiting is definitely a part of Ft. Desoto. I am pretty confident Mr. Wilson truly enjoys us being out there. He use to sail a lot and can relate to the wind aspect of the sport.

Whoops I was just speculating because someone mentioned paid parking. I guess we'll see but it's no big deal it'll all work out! No worries.

I have no clue what is up out there. I guess I was just saying that at least the Super is kinda on our side. At least that's my impression over the years. There have been a couple of articles in various mags, the St. Pete Times, etc over the years about DeSoto.
I have noticed that every single one had a kiter in it in some fashion, whether it be a photo, an interview or a drawing on a "map" of the park.

[Optionryder420]

If they were to ban parking at EB we'd just have to make it unenforceable.

IE: Everybody still park there.

They can't tow that many cars, but they could ticket that many.

Considering we'd have to pay a lot to park anyways, and the walk, the $15 ticket would be well worth it.

That's my $.02 anyways... all I know is i'll never stop parking there.

[Big G]

To answer the caption of if I tried using that thing for fishing the answer is NO! But thanks for noticing..

Heres another angle of that unnamed kiter in the Florida Sportmans Mag.....

[inferno]

Originally Posted by Optionryder420

If they were to ban parking at EB we'd just have to make it unenforceable.

IE: Everybody still park there.

They can't tow that many cars, but they could ticket that many.

Considering we'd have to pay a lot to park anyways, and the walk, the $15 ticket would be well worth it.

That's my $.02 anyways... all I know is i'll never stop parking there.

no offence but thats a bad way to view the situation, i hoe everone isnt of the same mind set

[toby wilson]

Originally Posted by Optionryder420

If they were to ban parking at EB we'd just have to make it unenforceable.

IE: Everybody still park there.

They can't tow that many cars, but they could ticket that many.

Considering we'd have to pay a lot to park anyways, and the walk, the $15 ticket would be well worth it.

That's my $.02 anyways... all I know is i'll never stop parking there.

2 wrongs don't make a right my friend. They will just ban us from the park in general if we don't follow their rules. Lets keep our relationship with the Park/Rangers a positive one.

Damn Gary, that guy should quit his day job and become a sports model.
Who is that dude?