The New Braunfels City Council received the 2022 River Season Report during their Oct. 10 regular meeting, highlighting the busy and profitable summer months on the Comal and Guadalupe rivers.

River Operations Manager Amy Niles said there had been improvements made this year to the river operations for the city. These improvements included resurfacing the parking lot at Prince Solms Park, expanding the River Operations Division to include a part-time employee and creating a new point of sales system at the river booths to allow shorter wait times for guests.

Niles said some of the common themes for this year's river season were the hot weather and lack of rain led to a long float on the slower-moving river. The department also experienced a high number of revenues and visitors through July.

“I've never seen numbers as high as they were going into July, and I've never seen numbers as low as they were going through August,” Niles said.

There were 375 citations issued by the New Braunfels Police Department for disposable container ordinance enforcement, which is 50% higher than last year. The River Operations Division also noted a total of 32,000 pounds of litter collected in the river, parking lots and park properties.

“To have that high of a total for litter points to more weekday use when there's less [law] enforcement,” Niles said. “And so that's something we're going to be looking at this next year and hoping that we can address through some other actions.”

Collected parking revenue reached a record of $547,630 this year, which Niles attributes to the increase in visitors attending during the weekdays and all five parking lots for river access being open to the public. The River Management Fee, which is $2 collected per river user on weekends and holidays from Memorial Weekend to Labor Day, totaled $469,360 this year. According to Niles, 22% of River Management Fees are collected by the city, and 78% are collected by River Outfitters.

“Parking revenue was extremely significant this year,” Niles said. “This is the first year for the river fund that parking revenue was more than the river management fee revenue.”