Lakeside residents question rate hike
WYFF 4 Updated: 11:39 PM EDT Jun 15, 2019
Renee Wunderlich
Reporter
LAKE HARTWELL —
Permits for private docks like those in Lake Hartwell will go up starting Jan. 1 next year.
Neighbors with lakefront properties got a notice in the mail, and now some want to know where their money will go. "We understand it, that life goes up in cost, but all of the sudden we've got these 400% or 200% jumps … What exactly is behind that?" said Bubba Britton, who lives along Lake Hartwell.
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The higher fee is for private docks and land-based facility permits along some federal waterways, including Lake Hartwell.
Other waterways that will see this increase are J. Strom Thurmond Lake on the Georgia-South Carolina border, Okeechobee Waterway in Florida, Allatoona Lake and Lake Sidney Lanier in Georgia, Walter F. George Lake and West Point Lake on the Georgia-Alabama border, Lake Seminole on the Georgia-Florida border, Philpott Lake in Virginia, W. Kerr Scott Lake in North Carolina and John H. Kerr Lake on the North Carolina-Virginia border.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it needs to raise permit fees to $835 to cover administrative costs. "The government is not doing this to make money. No, we're doing this to recover the fees of what it costs us to issue those permits," said Billy Birdwell, senior public affairs specialist with the Savannah District at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In a letter to the Corps, some state representatives, including South Carolina's Jeff Duncan, asked for a reason why there was no public input before raising the price for a permit.
The Corps tells WYFF News 4 it is working with the community and lawmakers, but some residents in Lake Hartwell said they hope this raise in rates won't drive out older neighbors who simply can't afford to pay more.
"There are folks who live on the lake who very well may have hardships with those costs," Britton said. "And you'd just hate to lose the community that is Lake Hartwell."
Neighbors along Lake Hartwell in Clemson, South Carolina, said they support measures to make their lake safer but question this increase for administrative costs.
They tell WYFF News 4 their old payments were $435 for a dock permit.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that while residents can't prepay this year's rate for a permit due next year, they can save money by bundling projects together be covered under one permit.
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