Reserve Casper Park, Recreation Facilities Online; Council Eyes Changing Fees

The City of Casper offers an online way to reserve parks, shelters, green spaces or table areas through the parks and recreation department, according to a news release.

To check availability or make a reservation, visit the city's website and click on the “Facilities” tab. Users will see the option to “Reserve A Park," and will need to log in or create an account to do so.

Choose the park area under the location map, and select the date and times for the rental. Park areas must be reserved in four-hour blocks. Continue through the prompts to complete the reservation and pay online.

The North Casper Clubhouse and Washington Band Shell are not available online for reservations, so to reserve them or to learn more contact the recreation division office at (307) 235-8403.

Regarding the four-hour block times, the Casper City Council is considering changing that requirement, according to the agenda for the council's work session held on Tuesday.

Council ran out of time at the three-and-a-half-hour session, so it did not discuss the fees.

According to the agenda, the council two years ago passed a resolution that set reservations as four-hour blocks, but that caused problems with the online rental system. If a renter selects fewer or more than four hours, the system gives an alert and they must restart the online process.

So the parks and recreation division proposed eliminating the four-hour block reservation times and making these other changes:

• Combining most shelters into one class with one reservation fee with the exception of the Wells Park Pavilion and Highland Park Shelter No. 1.
• The elimination of deposits for the Wells Park Pavilion and the Crossroads Pavilion.
• Increasing the fee for the Washington Park Band Shell stage extension when requested.
• Adding fees for reservations of horse shoe pits and the sand volleyball court.
• Clarifying that commercial actives that are part of special events do not need to pay the commercial activity fee even if that event had reduced or waived fees.
• Adding language that indicates when an applicant must contact the licensing specialist and aligning the insurance requirements to match the city's special events planning guide and policy.

The city council may look at this issue at another work session.