Carbon County officials are taking steps to try and take back Mauch Chunk Lake Park from noncounty residents who come and create problems.

On Thursday, the county commissioners spoke about changes that will occur during the 2017 season at the park, which is a growing tourist attraction during the summer months. These include arming the rangers who patrol the park, as well as increasing membership and daily passes for noncounty residents.Park rangers“We’re looking at increasing and changing some of the positions out there to possibly giving more enforcement authority to the rangers,” said Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein.The commissioners said that over the past few years the county has been seeing a growing number of visitors, especially when Beltzville Lake is closed due to high bacteria counts in the water.“More and more people from out of the county are finding out about Mauch Chunk Lake Park,” Commissioner William O’Gurek said. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but … we are finding out that we’re having a lot of problems out there.”Nothstein said problems include people using drugs and alcohol within the park limits, becoming belligerent and disrespectful to other visitors or the rangers and some are carrying guns or other weapons.He said that ultimately, it comes down to the county needing to keep the rangers and park staff safe, as well as the visitors who abide by the rules.“We want to do what we can to protect them and take a good, strong, firm stance that we will not tolerate any of the (bad) behavior,” Nothstein said.“We’re going to have the rangers carrying weapons because of the nature of the incidents that are happening there,” O’Gurek said, noting that oftentimes the county is hearing about rangers finding themselves in situations with groups where they don’t feel safe because they aren’t equipped with enough protection.“We’re going to get tough at that park,” O’Gurek said. “We’re taking our park back from what we believe to be outsiders coming in here and taking over that park. We can’t stop them from coming here, but we can charge them accordingly, and if that discourages them in some way, shape or form, I’m OK with that because I’d rather us take a get-tough attitude and get that park restored to what it was in the past.”Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said this has been in the works for some years.The county has discussed the matter with the park board, sheriff and both Jim Thorpe and Summit Hill police chiefs.“Safety is the bottom line,” Gerhard said. “We know we have a problem out there and we want to get that problem corrected. Allowing (rangers) to carry is going to be an additional security.”He pointed out that there are instances where rangers must confront groups of people who have been drinking and are rowdy and may not cooperate with the authority.“The time is now to act,” he said. “You can’t put a price on someone’s life, and if we pay more for the rangers (and allow them to carry weapons), it’s worth it for us.”The county will require the rangers to get certified before being allowed to carry, but two of the staff already are on that track, the commissioners said, pointing out that they are both retired state troopers.“We’re not going off half-cocked,” O’Gurek said. “We’re going off with skilled people to help us take back control of that park.”Currently, the county has two rangers, but hopes to increase the number to at least four and have one on every shift during peak seasons.RatesNothstein said that the additional certifications for the rangers will increase costs at the park and because of that, the commissioners felt it was necessary to increase fees for noncounty residents.The new rates for all noncounty residents will be $100 for family memberships of up to four people, and $5 for every additional family membership; and $50 for individual memberships.Daily passes will increase to $7 for an adult and $5 for a child ages 4 to 12.Rates for county residents will remain the same as they have been with family memberships costing $40 before May 23 and $50 after May 23; and individual memberships costing $20 before May 23 and $25 after May 23.Daily pavilion rentals will also increase for noncounty residents to $200.In addition to those changes, there are a few rate increases for both county and noncounty residents.Camping cottages/cabins will increase from $47 to $50 a night for county residents and from $68 to $80 a night for noncounty residents; and for five-night stays between Sunday and Thursday, from $165 to $175 for county residents and from $230 to $250 for noncounty residents.Tent camping will go up $1 to $18 a night in-season for county residents and from $32 to $35 a night for noncounty residents; and out-of-season from $15 to $16 a night for county residents and from $25 to $27 for noncounty. In addition, tent camping on Sept. 15 and 16 will increase to $40 a night for noncounty residents.Boat mooring also increases $5 to $50 for county residents and $5 to $60 for noncounty residents.