Washington County to pilot mountain-biking fee to fund park upgrades, county executive says

In a WashCo Weekly video, Washington County Executive Josh Schoeman said the county will pilot a mountain-biking fee this year at Heritage Trails County Park to fund capital improvements and support a narrower set of "priority parks." "So we are piloting a mountain bike fee, for this year, and the parks department and our community development team are working really hard at formulating what exactly that's going to look like," Schoeman said.

Schoeman said the county adopted a parks fiscal sustainability plan after years of deferred maintenance across many park sites. "When I came to the county about 13 years ago now, all of our different park areas had a lot of maintenance issues," he said, adding that the county previously maintained "16 or 17" separate park areas and was spending heavily from property taxes for what he described as a lower-quality system.

The executive credited staff with recent improvements and singled out Chief Community Development Officer Jamie Ludovic for praise: "Shout out, to our chief community development officer, Jamie Ludovic, and the entire team for their work," he said. Schoeman listed several parks that have received major upgrades, naming Grove, Homestead Hollow in Germantown, Sandy Knoll and the town of Trenton northeast of West Bend.

Schoeman described the mountain-bike trail at Heritage Trails as being built by its users and said the pilot fee is intended to provide a dedicated funding source for trails and related amenities. He framed the work as part of a broader strategy to make Heritage Trails a regional destination that draws visitors from across the Midwest.

On funding, Schoeman said the county was previously contributing "over $1,000,000 a year" in property taxes to its parks and that those expenditures reduced funds available for other priorities such as public safety, mental health services, transportation and highway infrastructure. "And now the fees that we talked about, including this new [fee] soon to be here in Heritage Trails, are 100% funding our county park system," he said, attributing recent quality gains to the shift in revenue sources.

Schoeman said parks and community development staff are still formulating details of the pilot fee and did not provide an amount for the mountain-biking charge. He closed the segment by thanking viewers and inviting suggestions for future topics.

The announcement represents a county executive-level policy direction and a pilot program proposal; Schoeman did not announce any formal county board vote or ordinance establishing the fee in this video.