Army Corps dropping cash payment at 12 parks

Lake Lanier as seen from the air in July 2017. - photo by Nick Bowman
Nick Bowman
Updated: March 12, 2018, 12:48 p.m.

Army Corps parks around Lake Lanier will stop accepting cash on April 1.

Fees won’t change at the 12 day-use parks around the lake, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a Monday, March 12, announcement.

The parks that will stop accepting cash include Buford Dam Park, Lower Pool East, Burton Mill, Lower Pool West, Keiths Bridge, Old Federal Day Use, Lanier Park, Two Mile, Little Hall, Van Pugh North, Long Hollow and West Bank.

Credit and debit cards will be the only form of payment for the fees at the parks: $5 parking, $2 walk-in access, $5 boat-ramp use and $20 commercial vehicle parking.

Six Army Corps parks with pay-per-use boat ramps will have neither a cash vault or a credit card reader: East Bank, Vanns Tavern, Balus Creek, Tidwell Little River and Thompson Bridge.

At these parks, visitors must have a recreation pass sold by the Army Corps to use the boat ramps. The passes include the annual pass, an America the Beautiful senior pass, an America the Beautiful access pass or an America the Beautiful annual pass.

Beginning Sunday, the office selling the passes will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., according to the Army Corps, at 1050 Buford Dam Road in Buford.