SCARBOROUGH (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Hot weather in Maine usually translates to a day at the beach. It can be a challenge to pack all the lunches, round up all the chairs and towels, and then secure that big umbrella in the sand. There's also this to consider now: a higher parking fee.
Last fall, Scarborough increased the daily parking and non-resident season pass rates. To park during the day at Higgins, Pine Point, or Ferry Beach, it's now $15 per car. That's up from $10 last year. The season parking pass is still $40 for residents but for visitors it doubled, costing $150 in 2018.
At Crescent Beach State Park in Cape Elizabeth, fees haven't changed since 2016. The park charges an admission fee, so it's not just to park. It costs $6 per Maine resident ages 12 to 65, and $8 per visitor from out of state, ages 12 to 65.
Entrance and parking fees can add up. So what's behind them?
According to Todd Souza, the Director of Community Services for the town of Scarborough, fees help pay for trash removal and for beach and restroom cleaning. He also says they have had to adjust the staff's pay to keep up with the increase in minimum wage.
"As that minimum wage has increased we've tried to stay ahead of it," Souza said. “We hadn't raised our season passes since I believe it was 2014 and daily parking fees since ’12 so it’s been a few years.”
“We have restrooms to maintain, facilities to clean, buildings [that] need maintenance," said Kurt Shoener, the park manager at Crescent Beach. "We have to have a crew here to do all of that and they have to be paid.”
In places like York, parking is by the hour. The town only owns one beach, Short Sands Beach and the town manager says they have kiosks that charge $2 an hour, but there's still a chance you can save 50%.
"We still have a few of the old-school meters, those are a buck an hour," said Stephen Burns, York's town manager.