Opposing Viewpoints TOPIC: Damaging a state park tree-Welcome to Warren County, home of the $220 tourist fine
Warren County sure knows how to roll out the welcome mat when it comes to tourists.
Two regular Rock Island State Park campers received a taste of not-so-friendly hospitality this week when they were fined $220 and ordered to perform 15 hours of public service work at the state park for cutting a tree with a machete.
Granted, we don’t need tourists damaging the beauty of perhaps this community’s greatest natural landmark. But we don’t need to throw the proverbial book at two guys who didn’t realize they were violating state park rules. The fact the machete was still stuck in the tree ‘ in plain sight ‘ when a park ranger arrived shows the two didn’t realize their wrongdoing.
For people described as regular park visitors, this is not appropriate treatment, especially considering they will have to travel from their Nashville-area homes to do their community service work here. A written warning for a first-time offense would have been a more fitting punishment.
Chances are, these two visitors are going to take their regular camping trips somewhere else. And it’s safe to say they might voice their dissatisfaction to other potential state park visitors and stop them from traveling to our fine community.
Anyone who makes a habit of reading court dockets published in the Standard knows that criminals aren’t always treated harshly. But that’s not the case with this incident. For a town looking to generate more tourism dollars, we have a strange way of getting visitors to return.