Lake Mead fee stations not ready for weekend

LAS VEGAS - Visitors to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area will be able to drive through or around entrance stations without paying fees this weekend.

The National Park Service is in the process of occupying the first four entrance stations built to collect fees under a program authorized by Congress in 1996, spokesman Bert Byers said Friday.

The three stations in Lake Mead's Boulder Basin area that were slated to open mid-June, followed by one under construction at Katherine Landing on Lake Mohave, won't be ready by the Fourth of July as park officials expected. Instead they will open later this summer, Byers said.

The recreation area, a destination for 10 million visitors per year, drew about 300,000 visitors during last year's Fourth of July weekend.

O'Neill said the park's fee-management teams will visit popular areas around lakes Mead and Mohave to sell the annual passes. Eighty percent of the fees collected will remain at the recreation area for upkeep.

Because the first stations won't open until after midyear, the initial annual $20 pass will be sold at half price, as will the initial $20 fee for vessel launching.

Visitors will have to pay $5 per vehicle for a five-day pass if they don't have an annual Lake Mead pass or one of the others sold nationally, such as the $50 National Parks Pass.

In all, the number of entrance stations will total nine, each costing an average of $600,000 to build.

O'Neill said the entrance stations are not just for collecting fees. The stations, he said, ''will give us an opportunity to personalize our visitors' experience. We will distribute educational material, remind visitors about safety issues, and most importantly, answer their questions.''