Fortuna increases River Lodge fees and approves $80,400 supplemental budget for audio-visual upgrade

The Fortuna City Council on Oct. 20 adopted a revised schedule of fees for parks and recreation facilities, including River Lodge and the Monday Club (Resolution 2025-25), and approved a supplemental budget of $80,400 for replacement and ongoing maintenance of the River Lodge audio-visual system.

Staff told the council the fee changes and operational adjustments are intended to narrow an estimated annual operating deficit for River Lodge from about $275,000 to roughly $200,000. Using rental patterns since January as a baseline, staff estimated the proposed fee and operational changes would have produced approximately $75,000 in additional revenue during that period.

Among the changes presented, staff recommended raising security deposits (proposed from $250 to $500), increasing full-day and half-day room rates for the Coho, Steelhead and Chinook rooms and creating a combined main-rooms rental for the full facility. Staff also proposed a new table-and-chair setup fee (proposed $100 per room), a dishware-use fee, higher audio-visual daily fees and a rescheduling processing fee. Staff said existing operational changes already in progress include enforcing cleaning-deposit refund rules, limiting event hours (events to end no later than 11 p.m.), and shifting to event-driven staffing.

Council received no public comments on the fee schedule. The resolution to adopt the fee schedule was approved on a roll call vote: Council Member Connolly, Council Member Diaz, Council Member Stevens, Mayor Pro Tem Trent and Mayor Johnson all voted yes (5-0).

Later in the meeting, staff presented an item seeking an $80,400 supplemental budget to replace and bring current the River Lodge audio-visual system. Staff said the current system, installed in 2017 by Tech Home Innovations, fell behind on updates and maintenance and that many components need replacement; the vendor's quote for replacement components was approximately $78,000, with estimated quarterly maintenance at about $2,400 per year. The Humboldt Lodging Alliance approved a contribution of $25,000 to the project. Council approved the supplemental budget on a voice vote.

Council members asked whether speakers and other hardware would be reused; staff said many speakers could be reused and that the vendor expected to reuse existing hardware where feasible, but that connectivity and transmitter/receiver components were the parts most in need of replacement. Staff said quarterly maintenance would reduce the chance of mid-event failures, which staff reported have caused microphones to disconnect during events.

Staff said existing reservations will be honored at the rates in effect when deposits were taken.