SILVER SPRING, MD—Today, the Montgomery County Department of Parks announces the launch of its newly upgraded Park Permits website—www.ParkPermits.org—with new features that allow park users to more easily find, check the availability of, reserve and pay to permit popular park facilities, such as picnic shelters, campsites, park activity buildings and others.
“These new web enhancements should mean less wait time on the phone and at our offices for our customers,” said Department of Parks Park Permits Supervisor Denise Reid-Bourne. “We are really excited about the changes because they will provide a faster and more convenient permit process.”
The newly upgraded Park Permits website offers park users 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week access, allowing them to find, check on the availability of, reserve and pay to use park picnic shelters, group picnic areas, campsites at Cabin John and Parklawn, the Woodside Gym, and park activity buildings from the comfort of their own home or office. Those using the newly improved automated payment system will receive an immediate email confirmation of the requested date once the park facility is booked online.
“Our offices in Silver Spring and South Germantown routinely field hundreds of permit requests vial phone, fax, mail and in person,” said Reid-Bourne. “So allowing customers direct access to this enhanced online presence will certainly improve our ability to serve them more effectively and efficiently.”
To book park facilities online using the newly enhanced website, park users will need to register for or use an existing ParkPASS account (www.ParkPASS.org). ParkPASS is the Department of Parks’ online class and program registration system. ParkPASS accounts are free to create and only require some general contact information to set up.
The Department of Parks has also recently made some physical improvements to both Park Permit offices by adding drop boxes for park users who are returning park activity building keys during normal business hours.
“This is the first round of improvements for Park Permits,” added Reid-Bourne, “next we’ll look at how to make our permitting process for athletic fields more convenient using the website.”
In 2008, the Department of Parks did make some significant improvements to its athletic field use permit policy, including prohibiting play on all park athletic fields from December 1 – March 31 and August 15 – August 31 so that the fields could “rest” and clearly articulating application windows for both the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter seasons. The application window to permit park athletic fields for the 2009 Spring/Summer season closed January 15.
The 2009 Spring/Summer season will be the first in which the new hourly fee schedule for park athletic fields is effective. Effective January 1, 2009, the fee to permit athletic fields in local parks is $3 per hour for games (two hour minimum) and $3 per hour for practices (one hour maximum). The new fees to permit athletic fields in regional and recreational parks is $15 per hour for youth (17 and under) on unlit fields and $30 per hour for youth (17 and under) on lit fields. Adults (18 and up) playing on regional and recreational park fields will pay $20 per hour on unlit fields and $35 per hour on lit fields.
The Department of Parks proposed the new athletic field fee schedule in October to help offset the continually increasing costs of utilities, field maintenance and renovation for these heavily used fields; generate additional funds to improve the quality and playability of the fields; discourage over-permitting and non-use of fields by large organizations; provide more opportunities for new groups to gain weekend and other field time; and bring the department’s athletic field fees more in line with other regional jurisdictions.
For more Park Permits related information and to use and view the newly enhanced website, visit www.ParkPermits.org.
# # #
Contact:
Kelli Holsendolph
Media Relations Manager
Montgomery County Department of Parks
301-650-2866