FSNHS decides not to increase fees

By Jason E. Silvers

The Fort Scott Tribune

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A proposed plan to raise entrance fees at Fort Scott National Historic Site has stalled for the time being, FSNHS officials said Tuesday.

In February, the National Park Service began soliciting comments from the public on a proposed $2-per person increase in entrance fees at FSNHS, one of many historical sites operated by the NPS across the country. The proposal calls for an increase in the single entrance fee for adults 16 years of age and older who enter the park, from the current $3 rate per person to $5 per person, according to a FSNHS statement.

No action has been taken the last several months on that proposal, which is currently under review by the NPS regional office, FSNHS Chief Ranger Kelley Collins said.

"At this point, it's been put on hold," Collins said. "We're actually still accepting comments (on the proposal). We submitted a plan to the regional office and they are exploring it at another level."

The rate increase would also raise the price for an individual annual pass to the fort from the current $15-per year price for adults to $20-per year. Children and young people 15 years of age and younger would still be able to enter the fort free of charge, the FSNHS statement said.

The NPS recently conducted a study of all of its national parks to try and determine a consistent pricing structure for parks across the country that are similar in size and operations to FSNHS, Collins said. The goal of the NPS is to maintain consistent entrance fees among these parks, but found after completing the study that price rates across the country were "vastly different from park to park," she said.

The NPS has designed a pricing structure for its parks that reflect slight increases in park entrance fees every few years due to increased operation costs for those parks and the rising cost of inflation, Collins said. That pricing structure is currently being reviewed because under the existing plan, the annual increases would create odd pricing figures for its visitors and FSNHS officials want to keep their entrance fees at round numbers, she said.

Entrance fees at FSNHS were last raised in 2002. The proposed increase would bring entrance fees at the fort more in line with similar NPS-operated areas across the country, the FSNHS statement said. If the new prices are approved, they would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2008, the statement said.

FSNHS officials use all collected entrance fees to fund yearly operations at the fort, and to help pay for several historical events that fort officials and other local volunteers conduct throughout the year for the public. The FSNHS also retains 100 percent of all entrance fees collected during the year, unlike several larger NPS-operated parks and sites across the country that do not retain all of those fees, Collins said.

FSNHS consists of 20 historic structures on the fort grounds, a parade ground and five acres of restored tallgrass prairie, all of which help to tell the story of military life in Fort Scott from 1842 to 1873. It is open daily for self-guided tours.

The National Park System comprises 391 areas covering more than 84 million acres in every state except Delaware, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Those areas include national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House in Washington, D.C., according to the agency's official Web site, www.nps.gov.

More than 272 million people visited national parks across the country in 2006, the Web site said.

Comments from the public on the proposed fee increase at FSNHS can be e-mailed to the fort at fosc_superintendent @nps.gov, or mailed to Fort Scott National Historic Site, Old Fort Boulevard, Fort Scott, Kan., 66701. Telephone comments, which are also accepted, can be directed to Collins at (620) 223-0310 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.