Du Quoin considers fees for use of City Lake

The city of Du Quoin is considering implementing a series of annual permits and daily fees for boating on the City Lake, a way of recouping some of the thousands of dollars the city spends each year on road maintenance in the area.

On Monday, the city council gave general acquiescence to the concept of pursuing permits and fees, although Mayor Guy Alongi said they are in no rush to get it done. He said the details will be determined and then brought to the council as an ordinance in mid- to late summer. If passed, the ordinance would not go into effect until probably March of 2022.

"We spend thousands a year maintaining the roads out there," Alongi said Thursday. "My intention is not to put that money (from fees and permits) into the general fund, but attach the funds to a restricted account that will be deposited for roads upkeep."

He said the permit/fee income would reimburse the city's general fund when it spends money to maintain those roads around the lake.

Alongi said that starting to collect fees from lake users is not a signal the city is giving up on trying to sell the lake. Instead, they realize that selling the lake has complications, and won't happen for at least three to five years. Meanwhile, the city needs money to maintain the roads.

The snag in selling the lake is in getting title to the lake itself, 254 acres of water. Doing the work to establish the title could coast upward of $100,000, and "I don't have the belly" to spend that kind of money, Alongi said. He said city officials have talked to someone who thinks the land work could be done for less than $100,000; and if that's true, Alongi said he'd rather pay for it over several years and not all at once.

The initial thoughts about permits and fees include a $40-$50 annual permit for people who live directly on the lake; another annual permit for people who do not live on the lake but who fish there regularly; and also a daily fee of $3 to $5 for people who occasionally want to fish there.

Alongi said fines would be established for scofflaws, and these would be fines paid at Du Quoin City Hall, not through the court system.

None of this is set in stone, and Alongi said it is important to get it right the first time, and not have to back up and adjust the ordinance after it's passed. How to police compliance is also an issue requiring study.

"We have to figure it out," Alongi said. "We want to do this thing once and once only, we don't want to rush into anything."

Alongi added that fees for lake usage is nothing new - pointing to Rend Lake, Crab Orchard and Cedar Lake as three among many that charge launch fees for watercraft.

There is talk among residents in the lake area about forming a park district. Alongi said if residents form one, in which they tax themselves to maintain the lake, that could have an effect on the city ordinance.