A new road system will be built at Yuba Dam so the Bureau of Land Management and State Parks and Recreation agencies can set up booths to charge an entrance fee to the park.
Officials hope the entrance fee will cut down on the rowdy element which has taken over the beaches during holiday weekends. In addition, if the crowd threatens to swell to unmanageable numbers, people can be turned away.Rex Rowley and Lynn Fergus, representing the BLM, told commissioners they had taken the project back to the drawing board after commissioners raised objections to putting toll booths on county Class B roads.
"I think you will like this plan," said Fergus. "We did a little rearranging. We will still use the pay station, but we will develop a new road off to the side, which will tie into the state park on the Juab side and into the Painted Rocks area on the Sanpete County side."
Fergus said the roads would be built and maintained by the BLM.
"I think this sounds like a good solution," said Gordon Young, commissioner.
In an earlier proposal, the BLM had suggested building a pay station on a Class B road located at the entrance to the Yuba Dam Reservoir. However, commissioners were reluctant to allow the road to be used for that purpose.
They explained roads on the B system cannot be locked to the public or have a toll imposed. Commissioners told BLM officials they were opposed to citizens of the county being charged a fee to use roads they pay taxes to keep in good repair. They wanted to keep the roads open for farmers and ranchers in the area.
Utah Parks and Recreation and the Bureau of Land Management proposed building two fee collection stations at Yuba Dam to allow a fee to be charged to enter the recreation site.
The heavy-use season runs from May 15 to Sept. 15. Law enforcement officers are kept busy, trying to keep rowdy visitors from breaking the law and making the site a terrible place to visit.