Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Conservation Reservations topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Conservation director gets board’s blessing to add Willow Creek cabin to statewide online reservation site
Summary
The conservation director received the board’s informal approval to list the new Willow Creek cabin on the mycountyparks.com statewide reservation platform and to establish a separate merchant and bank account for online receipts.
The Osceola County conservation director told the board he plans to put the new Willow Creek cabin online for reservations via mycountyparks.com (the Iowa Association of County Conservation Boards’ reservation platform), and asked the board for its blessing to proceed. The board signaled consent; no formal vote was taken.
Conservation Director Nate explained that most Iowa county conservation boards use the statewide site and that the platform processes payments through a merchant account. He said the usual practice among counties is to set up a separate bank account for online reservation receipts and to transfer funds monthly or quarterly into the county general fund; that separation is intended to reduce operational risk for county general-fund accounts.
Nate provided fee and tax details: the platform operator charges $4 per transaction, a payment gateway fee (example given 30¢ for Authorize.net), a monthly administrative fee (quoted at $25), and a credit-card processing rate (quoted at 2.9%). He also noted that hotel/motel taxes and local option taxes would still need to be collected and remitted; the director estimated transaction fees and taxes will reduce gross receipts by several percentage points and recommended building those costs into published prices or adding surcharges similar to third-party lodging platforms.
Board members asked whether campsites could be added later (the director said yes), how walk-up reservations would be handled (staff can block dates manually and accept in-person payment), and who would reconcile statements (county staff would reconcile the separate account monthly). Several supervisors encouraged building in surcharges to offset transaction and reporting costs; one supervisor said the board’s “blessing” was sufficient to proceed.
Next steps: the conservation office will begin setting up the merchant account and a dedicated bank account, complete required reporting processes for hotel/motel tax, and return with any items that require additional board action.
