City Discounts Boat Launch Fee for Seniors at Mentor Lagoons Marina

The city has discounted the cost of a boat launch from for senior citizens who live in Mentor.

Mentor boaters who are 60 and older can launch for $7, instead of the usual $10, or for $2 if they launch before noon on a weekday.

The discussion to discount boat launches began at a Mentor City Council meeting where Councilman Ray Kirchner proposed it be free for people who live in Mentor. Councilman Scott Marn seconded the motion, but council decided to discuss the matter more instead of immediately voting on it.

Mentor City Manager Ken Filipiak said the senior discount is the compromise that members of council and the city came up with.

"I spoke to all of the council members," Filipiak said. "All of them had different ideas on where they wanted to go. What they all agreed on was a discount for the seniors."

Councilwoman Janet Dowling said she supports the discount but still thinks the launching boats should be free for Mentor citizens.

"It's a good compromise," Dowling said. "I don't think (making the launches free) is a closed issue. I hope we can revisit it in the future.

"To me, the residents of Mentor paid for this facility and it's a small thing to let them use it for free."

Dowling, who lives near the lagoons, said she thinks the marina's limited parking will prevent too much traffic from flooding the neighborhood should boat launches become free for residents.

When Kirchner initially suggested that launches be free, Councilman Ron Micchia said that council might be setting a precedent it cannot sustain. He asked, if the launches were free, why not other recreational services?

"There was some concern that if you make any service free for a particular group, it would be difficult to say 'no' to another," Filipiak said.

Filipiak added that Mentor will most likely receive far fewer dollars from the state's and than it has in years past, making this a tough time to cut fees.

"Now is a difficult time to offer free services because we have significantly less revenue than we've had before," he said.

Initially, there was concern that the new discount would require the city to hire attendants at the lagoons to check boaters' identification, verify their age and see if they are from Mentor. Previously, the lagoon's visitors operated on the honor system.

However, Parks and Recreation Director Bob Martin said he thinks his department can cover the gate most of the time without adding staff.

He said gate guards work during the weekend, the time with the most launches, and a secretary already works at the lagoon during daytime hours on weekdays, so they can check identification.

He noted that weeknights tended to be slow on the docks anyhow.

"We're trying to figure out how we'll cover it," he said.

This story initially said incorrectly that the docks would be discounted. It has been corrected to say that launches would be discounted.