Happy Friday, Beacon readers! Lauren Frick back again, ready to bring you more news from Whitefish. Instead of talking about iconic local watering holes, I’ve got some updates regarding the city’s favorite body of water — Whitefish Lake (I know I personally can’t wait for summer days at City Beach).
At the city council’s Tuesday night workshop, Parks and Recreation Community Services Coordinator Carla Belski presented a proposal for increased City Beach fees for boat launch passes and commercial use permits. This would be the first fee increase since 2017.
For summer 2026, city staff proposed increasing resident day launch passes from $10 to $15 and increasing resident season launch passes from $50 to $100. Residents will refer to any watercraft that are registered in Montana.
Staff also suggested adding non-residents fees for day and season launch passes, proposing $30 and $200 respectively.
Belski and city staff said increasing boat launch fees and commercial permits will help to better support the city’s efforts to have a safe place to launch while protecting Whitefish Lake through a vigorous aquatic invasive species (AIS) prevention program.
Essentially, the current fees aren’t keeping pace with expenses — not even close.
According to city documents, total revenues generated by the City Beach boat ramp in 2025 were $32,590, which only covers about 20% of the costs to run the ramp, maintain City Beach Park and perform inspections and decontaminations at City Beach and Whitefish Lake State Park.
Increasing the boat launch and commercial permit fees to the city’s proposed amounts would cover a much larger portion of these expenses, Belski told councilors on Tuesday night.
“Including our commercial permit program, we would double what we would bring in, so we would be probably closer to 70% of our expenses,” Belski said.
The city’s commercial boat launch permit program was first established in 2017 with nine permits issued that year. In 2025, there were a total of 24 permits issued.
Commercial permit holders use the launch heavily, with Belski saying the city’s extremely low fee of $125 does very little to make up the difference in the wear-and-tear the boat launch takes from all the use.
“We really need to increase those fees for the impact they’re having on the boat ramp and on staff and on the public,” Belski said.
City staff proposed new commercial fees ranging from $250 to $1,000 depending on the permit type, number of launches per season and permit quota.
In comparison to other cities with similar programs, the town of LaGrange, Wisconsin charges $500 for commercial installers/users, while Lake Forest Boat Ramp in Tahoe, California charges $1,000 for its commercial vessel season pass and the city of McCall, Idaho charges $1,500 for its commercial use permit that includes five annual stickers, according to city documents.
Councilors Rebecca Norton and Steve Qunell both expressed some concern with the commercial permit fees, saying that they’re “a little bit too low,” especially since the fees are meant to protect one of the city’s most valuable resources: Whitefish Lake.
“Honestly, I think people that should pay more are people that are actually making money off of the lake, rather than local residents,” Qunell said. “That increase seems fair. I think we should be looking at the nonresidents and commercial.”
Mayor John Muhlfeld said he’d to see some revisions to the commercial permit so it’s more of a tiered schedule, as well as an increase in the non-resident fee when staff brings the proposal back to council in the coming months for a public hearing.
“When we ran the economics when we completed the Haskell Basin Project, we currently derive about 10% of our annual water supply from lake water, and it’s a heck of a lot more expensive than drafting from surface water on Haskell Creek,” Muhlfeld said. “When we ran the economics back in 2016, it was about a sixfold increase in water rates in the event that AIS was encountered in our lake.”
“I’m very sensitive to that, and I think that the non-residents that are posing the highest risk of introducing AIS, as well as the commercial uses, tiered, should be more adequately contributing to that effort,” he added. “Because the consequence, if not, is very significant, and our taxpayers already paid a hefty penny to acquire the easement to project our supply.”
Now before you set sail for the weekend, make sure you launch into the rest of today’s Daily Roundup.
‘Daring to be Different,’ Accordion Bob Found a Full Life in Northwest Montana
Bob Mislivec has played the accordion since he was 10, carrying on a cultural tradition and finding serendipitous connections. Over the last couple decades, he’s become a staple of the North Fork and Badrock Canyon music community.
Columbia Falls City Council Provides Direction on Development Amid Wastewater Capacity Limitations
City councilors largely agreed with a path forward approved by the planning commission, which includes prioritizing infill development, as well as multifamily housing and townhomes
Former State Senate President Ellsworth Pleads Not Guilty, Claims Legislative Immunity
The Hamilton Republican is accused of misdemeanor official misconduct for allegedly awarding $170,100 in government work to a longtime business associate without soliciting competitive bids
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