I live in Polk County. Parksville Lake is in Polk County. Parksville is a beautiful lake and a nice place to fish or just pleasure ride. What I don't like is that you must pay a fee to the Forest Service to put your boat in the lake.
Every lake I know of has free ramps except Parksville. All up and down the Tennessee River you see free places where you can put your boat in the water.
Does the Forest Service need the few dollars that it takes in by requiring us to pay to use their ramps? I have a Golden Age Passport and only have to pay half price after paying $12 for the Passport Card. I can see charging the $12, but that should be enough. It is a lot of trouble to have to get out of your vehicle, Go get an envelope, then have to go back to your vehicle to see what your tag number is, then look for a pen to fill out the back of the envelope with, then walk back down and deposit the envelope.
They took half of our four-lane to make a parking lot for rafters. Looks like they could at least make a couple free ramps for the citizens of Tennessee. We deserve it as much as anyone else.
Seems like at least one of our lawmakers ought to think about things like this. It is my guess that the amount of money the Forest Service pays the person that takes the "fee moneey" is more than the amount of money they take in. I am hoping that someone will read this and make some changes at our lake.
Max Payne
Copperhill, Tn. paynemax@bellsouth.net