Pending approval by the National Park Service, visitors to the Vicksburg National Military Park could be paying higher entrance fees by 2016, park superintendent Mike Madell said Tuesday.

Madell said park officials must submit a proposal on fee increases by the end of January.

The proposed increase is part of a nationwide National Park Service program to ensure that all its parks that charge fees are charging comparable fees, Madell said. Under the program, the new fees would be in place by 2017.

“The goal is to try to develop some parity nationwide, to make sure comparable parks were comparable as to what is being charged for entrance fees,” Madell said. He said Vicksburg, which is a Tier 1, or small park, actually charges less than some parks in its tier.

“Assuming it’s (the park’s plan) approved, I would probably look at somewhere between the middle of 2015 and early 2016,” he said. “It’s possible they could come back to us and for tweaking on whatever the recommendation is, and that could push it down the road, but my intention would be to put it in a position to meet that 2017 target date (set by the National Park Service).”

Madell’s comments on the fees came at a public meeting to get the public’s response to the proposed increase. Four people attended the evening meeting at the park’s visitor center. He said the park staff will receive comments on the proposal until Jan. 9.

The park is proposing to increase the cost of an annual pass from $20 to $30, and a vehicle pass would increase from $8 to $15. A per person pass would increase from $4 to $7, and a motorcycle pass would rise from $4 to $10. The $10 lifetime senior citizen pass for people age 62 and older will not increase, and access passes for disabled and veterans will still be available at no charge, he said.

Federal law, he said, allows parks that charge fees to keep up to 80 percent of the fees collected, “so currently, if you bought a $20 Vicksburg National Military Park annual pass, $16 of that at a minimum stays here in the community.” The remaining 20 percent, he said, goes into a nationwide account for parks that do not charge entrance fees. He added parks that collect fees can also compete for money from that 20 percent account.

“We’ve competed successfully for 20 percent money in recent years and received quite a bit of it,” Madell said, adding some of the funding for the Sesquicentennial of the Siege of Vicksburg came from the 20 percent account.

Under the law, he said, the revenue generated from the entrance fees charged by the park must be used for the benefit of the park visitor.

The annual fee, he said, accounts for 11 percent of the park’s revenue, while the per car fee accounts for 75 percent. Fees are waived for schools and education groups.

From fiscal 2010 to 2014, he said, about 600,000 people a year visited the park generating an average $268,398 a year under the current fee system. If the fee increase goes into effect he said, revenue would increase to $421,500.

“Since the fee program has been in existence here, at least since 2002, just over $3 million in projects have been funded through entrance fees here, so you can see it’s not an insignificant amount,” he said.

People interested in commenting on the fee increase can contact the park by mail at Superintendent, Vicksburg National Military Park, 3201 Clay St., Vicksburg MS 39183; email at vick_superintendent@nps.gov; or enter comments online at parkplanning.nps.gov.