Howard Gives Love to Real Campers...

...well, if you call camping in town camping...

The ever-progressive Howard City Council has granted a great boon to the myriad tenting roadtrippers crossing the Great Plains along rustic and rowdy Highway 34. At its August 13 meeting, the Council lowered camping fees at the city campground for tenters not using the electrical hookups in the city campground from $14 to $10 ["Camping Fees Go Down in Howard for No Electricity," KJAM, 2007.08.16]. Yes, you read that right: a city council has actually lowered fees, and fees on tourists, no less! Standard operating procedure is to gouge the tourists for every penny we can get out of them (bed and booze taxes, non-resident hunting license fees, anything purchased West River within a week of the Sturgis rally). But Howard, home of wind turbines, organic beef, and other really good ideas, has recognized that folks in tents deserve some love.

Howard's move also reminds us of something Madison is lacking: a good city campground. Sure, we have camping at the lakes and Prairie Village, but why not some in-town camping space as well? If it works in Howard and in Brookings, why not here? For a minimal investment in infrastructure -- add a few plug-ins and an extra outhouse to an existing park, like Frisbee Park, or even to some of the vacant floodplain land along the creek -- we get some extra revenue for the City Parks and Recreation Department. We draw some more campers and business to town. Maybe we even get some of the tax-frugal RV crowd establishing their residency here through MyDakotaAddress.com to actually spend some time and money here!

Let's get to it Madison! Howard's beating us out, and we can't have that!