With the addition of the water play area and pavilions we have also given much thought to how we collect fees. Pavilion fees can be collected through conventional means in our standard class system. Daily fees could be collected either with staff members, via honor box (like disc golf), or via automated pay station (similar to a car wash system). We anticipate fees to exceed $40,000 annually, which means an honor box does not provide the necessary security/audit processes and procedures for such a large amount of revenue. Another option is collection by seasonal staff. However costs for the 154 days of operation would be approximately $14,000. This would be an annual cost and still have cash handling concerns.
We recommend an automated pay station that is permanently mounted on the restroom/concessions building. This prominent location makes the machine visible to users. An automated pay station is recommended; it will accept cash, credit, or debit payments with a printed receipt for the customer. The machine has credit card reader, security camera, alarm, cash vault, “annual pass” capability and locked bill dispensers, auditable safeguards and reports features that make it safe for customers to use, safe for staff to reconcile, and safe for long term fee collection, which really helps save staff time and training that is customary with conventional fee collections methods. We discussed reconciliation needs with the auditors and they believe the machine has all of the features necessary to provide acceptable processes to protect both the county and staff alike. To summarize, we recommend purchase of an automated fee collection machine to help collect and reconcile required fees in an amount of not to exceed $26,000.
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