Atwood Water Park

Yesterday I had to go down to the water park and talk with Pam. She is the Park manager and does a great job of keeping the park clean and picked up.

When I got to the park, Pam was not there, so I went down to us the new restrooms. This was at about 8:30 or 9:00 AM. The restroom was a mess. Now this is not Pam's fault, she had not even been to the park yet. Sometime during the night someone had come in and just really messed the place up. My question is, why do people treat things that their tax dollars built and maintain like garbage, it just doesn't make sense to me.

This brings me to my next point. Pam arrived shortly thereafter. She had gone into town to get fuel for the mower and weed eater. As we were sitting in the gatehouse talking about upcoming events at the park, a truck pulled up to the window. Pam greeted him in a friendly manner and he asked if he could drive through the park. This was a local man. When Pam informed him it would be a dollar admission to the park he let loose with a very rude comment and turned and left. He did not see me sitting in the gatehouse.

As I stated earlier Pam works hard to keep the park in good shape, and some people don't appreciate it, and trash it anyway. I wonder if this gentleman would have acted the same way when trying to enter a state park. The Town of Monticello spends a great deal of money trying to maintain all the parks in Monticello. This is the only park you have to pay a fee to use on a daily basis. We have held the cost to a dollar for over 15 years.

Why we all wish everything could be free, the fact of the matter it just doesn't work out that way. We have come up with a membership to the park, and it works out to just over 8 cents a day to use pretty much everything at the park. The Town of Monticello will expend over $300,000.00 on Parks and Recreation this year. I don't think a dollar to enjoy the Atwood Water Park is to much to ask.