Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳) on Monday said that it would next year take over the operations of the area’s renowned cold springs from private contractors following a vote at the township council.
Suao Cold Spring Park is one of the nation’s most important tourist attractions.
The township office allows private businesses to operate the park’s bath facilities after paying a premium for a contract, even though the facilities were built with public funds, Suao Council Speaker Chang Cheng-yi (張正義) said.
Earlier this year, the council voted on the issue and cut NT$4 million (US$133,378) from the township budget in premiums-derived revenue, Chang said.
Township councilors intend to reassert the office’s ownership and right to manage the park, he said.
Suao Mayor Chen Chin-lin (陳金麟) said the office had favored using contractors to manage the facilities because it would have otherwise been obliged to charge unreasonably low prices.
This is because the township’s self-governing ordinance for the park stipulated fixed fees for visitors and it has been many years since the prices were adjusted for inflation, he said.
Since the vote, the office has been working on a price scheme that would be lower than those offered by commercial operators, which the council would approve at a later date, Chen said.
The office would hire workers and renovate the bath facilities, a process that would temporarily close the park until April next year at the earliest, he said.
The new prices for the Suao springs would be lower than those currently offered, he said.
Contractors charge adult visitors NT$70 and others NT$40 for using the public baths, but the proposed changes would allow all visitors to use them for free, sources said.
The price for using private bath facilities ranges between NT$200 and NT$600 per unit, depending on the size of the visiting group, they said.
The proposed changes would adjust the prices for using the private facilities to NT$150 per visitor plus an additional guest for free, with an additional fee of NT$200 for each additional visitor, the sources said.
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