Eight-hour parking fee is $11,600

Think your parking fees are high? Consider the alleged plight of the Mandeville Seafood Festival. Last year, Recreation District #1 of St. Tammany charged the festival just $500 to keep the Pelican Park public parking lot open an extra two hours each of the four nights of the event. This year, according to an impassioned news release from festival backers, the agency wanted $28,925 — a fee it later dropped to $11,600 plus unspecified expenses after outrage ensued. The Mandeville Seafood Festival — now in its 31st year — donates all of its proceeds to local charities. More than $1 million has gone to groups like Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Treatment Center, the St. Tammany Association of Retarded Citizens, Hope House Children’s Advocacy Center and the American Heart Association’s St. Tammany chapter. “[Recreation District #1 of St. Tammany Parish] is demanding monies from the festival that — if paid — will come out of the gifts to their local charities,” says LeAnne Cantrell of KidSense, a new nonprofit project to donate special needs playgrounds to local public schools that is also a beneficiary of the event. “Perhaps members of [the recreation district] are not keeping up with current events, but our state is in a recession! The first cut in expenses that most families, corporations and small businesses make are those toward charitable giving.” Back in May, the St. Tammany Parish Council passed a resolution calling for Recreation District #1 to consider providing free parking for those attending the festival, which is the oldest one in the parish. Pelican Park Director Kathy Foley declined to address the accusations in the media, saying the truth will come out at a special board meeting on the subject at 6:30 p.m. today at the Castine Center. “They have a right to put out a press release, although I disagree with it,” she says. “This is a very ethical board and they’re trying to do what’s right for the public, the taxpayers and the recreation district. We’re going to discuss this in an open forum, which is what you’re supposed to do in good government.” — Penny Font