City to Take Closer Look at Fees, Policy for Boardman Tours

After several years of guided tours like Paddle for Pints and Kayak Bike & Brew – both operated by TC Ale Trail LLC – using city parks on Boardman Lake and the Boardman River, Traverse City commissioners want to take a closer look at fees and policy rules for tour operators.

The topic came up at a recent city commission meeting at the request of Commissioners Tim Werner and Mitch Treadwell, who asked to have a deeper policy discussion about how the city works with commercial operators. The popularity of existing river tours – plus the construction of FishPass at the Union Street Dam site, which officials are anticipating will generate heightened interest in the river following its completion – portends likely “increased commercial activity in our parks for kayaks and canoes,” said Werner.

In 2017, TC Ale Trail LLC – operated by Troy Daily – entered into an agreement with the city to use Hull Park, Lot D, and Clinch Park Beach as starting and/or end points for river tours. Paddle for Pints is described as a “brewery pub crawl paddle” visiting multiple downtown locations through a combination of paddling and walking. Kayak Bike & Brew similarly takes tour participants to various downtown establishments via paddling and biking.

Daily’s original contract covered a five-year period from 2017 to 2021, requiring him to pay the city $8,000 annually for the first two years and then $9,000 in 2019, $10,000 in 2020, and $11,000 in 2021. In addition to those fees, Daily pays for temporary restrooms, trash receptacles and collection, river clean-up sweeps, annual donations to TART Trails, and infrastructure improvements – like new stairs by Right Brain Brewery.

In 2020, construction was planned to begin on FishPass – though the project was ultimately delayed over a lawsuit. However, its looming commencement prompted the city to renegotiate its contract that year with Daily, since the river tours would need to change landing spots to American Legion Park. During those negotiations, City Clerk Benjamin Marentette says he raised the issue that Daily was “generating a significant amount of revenue for his business using city parkland.” Accordingly, the city sharply raised its annual fees for Daily – from what was supposed to be $10,000 in 2020 to $40,000. The new contract, which extended through 2024, required payments of $42,000 in 2021, $44,100 in 2022, $46,305 in 2023, and $48,620.25 in 2024. Daily also paid for improvements to American Legion Park so his tours could land there.

Marentette acknowledges there’s no “magic formula” for how Daily’s fees were calculated. “At the end of the day, the city cannot make money off what it’s charging for using a city resource,” he says. “However, the math calculation has a lot of flexibility. For something like this, we’re putting (the fees) into the general fund to subsidize park operations, which are substantial. It’s not as black and white as a simple permit fee.” Marentette says he’s aiming to strike “a balance” in charging an operator who’s “making a substantial amount of money using city property” an appropriate rate for doing so, while still being fair in the fees charged.

However, Daily says those escalating fees are rapidly making his business unsustainable. While the contract allows Daily to bring a maximum 8,200 tour participants through downtown in a given year – 3,200 for Paddle for Pints and 5,000 for Kayak Bike & Brew – Daily said he’s only hitting a fraction of that amount, with under 2,500 guests total for all tours in 2024. In addition, Daily said he’s had to contend with a range of issues – including river closures for multiple city road and bridge projects, plus COVID-19 and the following economic downturn – that have “significantly impacted revenue.” Continuing to pay nearly $50,000 in fees is “is no longer sustainable given the significantly reduced number of paddlers, events, and where we have accessibility to paddle,” Daily wrote in a memo to city commissioners.

The disagreement over fees means Daily and the city have not yet reached a contract extension agreement for 2025. Daily is seeking a reduction in fees, while Marentette – who says he gave ample advance warning to Daily that he would not bring a “status quo” agreement to the city commission for consideration – believes the rates need to be even higher. Marentette and Daily are scheduled to meet again next week to discuss contract terms, with a one-year extension potentially brought to commissioners for review on April 21. However, Daily – who normally puts his tour tickets on sale before Christmas – says he’s now several months behind schedule and isn’t sure what a reasonable middle ground could look like for fees this year.

Commissioners said they want to have a discussion about fees that could include looking at other formulas for calculating rates. A per-participant fee could be one approach, which could more accurately reflect a tour operator’s actual river usage and impact and be adjusted for factors like weather disruptions or cancelled tours. Commissioners also expressed interest in having a bigger philosophical discussion about whether tours like Daily’s are something the community wants in city parks – and how they should be regulated if so. Treadwell said he believes there’s “value” in helping visitors experience Traverse City waterways, while Mayor Amy Shamroe pointed to the numerous downtown establishments that are patronized by tours and increase their summer staffing accordingly.

Other commissioners worried the tours could disrupt the general public’s use of parks or the river, and felt the focus on alcohol was antithetical to Traverse City’s Healthier Drinking Culture. “I feel this kind of tourism is harmful to Traverse City, and I don’t support it,” said Commissioner Heather Shaw. For his part, Daily says he takes numerous steps – including limiting the tour time at each stop, offering food options, discouraging liquor consumption, banning coolers on the river, and certifying employees in Better Drinking Culture practices – to encourage responsible consumption. Daily also has a pre- and post-season debrief with numerous city department heads each season. “There have been essentially no concerns, and the operation that he's run from our perspective has been really good,” Marentette acknowledges.

Another option is that Daily could find one or more private property owners along the river to partner with for launching or landing sites. In that scenario, the city would lose both its annual fees as well as any control over what happens with the tours, since its oversight is limited to parkland. “We don’t have any regulatory control over the river itself,” Marentette confirms. That potentially provides an incentive for the city and Daily – or other tour operators – to continue to work together, provided they can find the right structure to do so. Beyond Daily’s 2025 contract, commissioners plan to spend the next several months working to create a larger policy that outlines desired usage and capacity for commercial operators in city parks along the Boardman – and what their fees should be if allowed.

“I have absolutely no issue personally or professionally (with the tours) and appreciate that there are opportunities for folks to enjoy the river,” Marentette says. “It’s truly a question of what the right balance is and what the residents want. We haven’t had that conversation in some time, and it’s time to have it.”