$5 Fee for Out-Of-State Vehicles Entering Two State Parks To Continue

(Council Bluffs, IA) Out-of-state visitors at two western Iowa parks will have to keep paying an entrance fee for at least two-and-a-half more years. Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs had three million visitors last year and Representative Brent Siegrist of Council Bluffs says it’s Iowa’s most heavily used state park, “particularly because it’s next to Omaha and there are tons of Nebraskans that come over.” Senator Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs implied that visitors from Nebraska might be more likely to “drink or tear up the park or go off-road,” and that a five-dollar fee is a tool to “try and maybe redirect some of our non-residents back to their state.” Waubonsie State Park is near the Missouri border in Fremont County and also has a lot of out-of-state visitors who are charged the five-dollar fee.