It will cost $20 this season to park at Cahoon Hollow and White Crest beaches, the selectmen agreed Tuesday, after hearing Suzanne Grout Thomas, beach administrator, explain that the rates at these two beaches have not changed in 19 years.

In 1993 the board of selectmen raised the fee from $10 to $15 a day. The parking fees at the other beaches already have been raised. Nauset and Barnstable for two years have charged $20 per weekend without any griping.

The proposed fee increase would help her staff, she said, because we wont have to have $500 in fives every weekend to make change.

The town took in $153,825 in revenue between the two beaches from 10,255 vehicle passes. If they have the same number of vehicles this year, it will mean $51,275 in anticipated new revenue, she said. Since the town needs revenue, she recommended the increase, and the board readily agreed.

The board took no action on beach fire regulations Tuesday, agreeing to wait until it gets a report back from Thomas and the ad-hoc committee created to come up with new rules and regulations for beach fires.

That means beach fires will be allowed, as they traditionally have been on four ocean beaches, with four permits issued daily for each beach.

I recommend we leave things as they are for the summer, Thomas said.

The committee came up with 20 recommendations, only one of which Thomas said she did not agree with. That was a regulation that those receiving a fire permit be given flags and a bucket when they pick up their permit.

I dont have funding for that, Thomas said. I cant imagine how many buckets and flags will walk out of here as souvenirs. Im not sure that part will not work.

But most of the committee recommendations could be put in place, she said, and she will report back to them, as the summer progresses, on the beach fire situation. One of the committee recommendations was that 10 fire permits be issued, but she was not sure if that meant 10 permits for each of the four beaches, or 10 permits to be divided between the four beaches.

More:

Fees raised at two Wellfleet beaches