Out of the 121 state parks in Pennsylvania, only one had to be closed over the weekend due to capacity issues, according to state officials - Beltzville State Park.

So how does the park determine when to close? Officials with the state Department of Conservation of Natural Resources said the decision is based on three factors - the number of people in the swimming area, the number of cars in the parking lot, and ultimately, the park manager's discretion.All three of those came into play on Sunday when officials decided to limit admission for about three hours, DCNR spokesman Terry Brady said."It is more than just the parking. It's indicative of the use of the lake, and more importantly the use of the park," Brady said. "Safety is paramount."Ultimately, the decision is based on the park manager's discretion. But the park is able to get a rough picture of its attendance through car counters placed at park entrances. On Sunday, the estimated attendance was 17,000 - that is equal to about one-quarter of the entire population of Carbon County. Beltzville's parking areas hold 904 cars.On Sunday, cars backed up onto Pohopoco Drive. Officials say that people parking cars and walking along the road can create unsafe conditions, and potentially make it difficult for emergency vehicles to access the park."Some of our parks' swimming areas were very crowded. When the swimming area is open, and it's hot, a lot of people come in. Beltzville addressed this by saying, 'no, you can't string your cars up to the turnpike, when it's done it's done," Brady said.The park also tries to roughly calculate the number of people using the swimming area.Beltzville is one of the most popular swimming areas of any state park. Brady said compared to other parks, the swimming area is warmer, and the beach area longer than most other state parks. That can lead to overcrowding."They can't count all the heads, but it becomes obvious when it's overcrowded," Brady said.Admission fee?Many residents have been calling for the state to charge an admission fee to reduce overcrowding. They also believe that it would reduce the number of closures at the park due to high bacteria counts in the swimming area.State Rep. Doyle Heffley recently brought up overcrowding at Beltzville on the state house floor. He said he was supporting a bill to allow the state to contract out some services at state parks to private businesses. The bill failed, but Heffley said that it could give Beltzville the flexibility to fight overcrowding." ... I rise in support of this bill, not because I want a water park in a state park, but because we need more resources at our state park to be better managing, and to help DCNR manage that," Heffley said.Park manager Devin Buzard said that he's heard from others that Beltzville has been crowded since DCNR does not comment on pending legislation.But Brady said that free admission was a founding tenet of the park. Project 70 was the legislation that created many of the state parks."That's the basic principle of our state parks, we're up to 121. Other states envy us - and we don't charge you or me to get into that state park," Buzard said.