If you like a side of sand with your lobster, then the city of Redmond’s policy would make sense.

I know when I go out to eat at a restaurant with a party of eight or more, I am expected to pay an automatic 20 percent gratuity. This allows my group to sit down at a table, receive great service and dinner.

I have no adversion to paying the gratuity. On behalf of the restaurant, it’s an expectation; on my behalf, it’s a known policy that I – and many others – would comply with. After all, there are no taxpayers willing to write out a check for restaurant maintenance fees and more wait-staff.

But using a public beach is a different story.

The city of Redmond recently told the Bellevue Boys and Girls Club that it would have to pay the city for its Camp Ardmore kids to use Idylwood Park – a public beach located at the north end of Lake Sammamish in Redmond.

The 18-acre park provides the public with a picnic shelter and tables, bathhouse, restrooms, playground and for Camp Ardmore kids in grades one through six, a sandy swimming beach.

Bellevue parents, like Martina Law, are outraged.

Her daughters, 7-year-old Leandra and 9-year-old Danica, have attended Bellevue Boys and Girls’ summer camp the past couple of years. They love to swim and play in the sand for hours and Idylwood Park has been the highlight of their summer, Law said.

However, this summer, their time at the park is limited because of a new arrangement between the club and Redmond Parks and Recreation.

Since 2006, the city has asked the club to pay as much as $4,000 per season to use the park. The club hasn’t, saying either it didn’t receive the city’s memo or did so after its camp fees already were in place.

Craig Larsen, Redmond Parks and Recreation director, said the city works with many community partners such as the Boys and Girls Club, YMCA and the Lake Washington School District to provide affordable access to the city’s park sites and facilities. The parks department has a fee schedule for large groups wishing to use the park on a regular basis. The fees help to offset the expenses for site use, the cost of park maintenance and supervision, including swim testing for youth and lifeguards, Larsen said.

In 2006, Idylwood lifeguards reported that on a daily basis the Bellevue Boys and Girls Club brought approximately 85-90 children and staff to the park. The group stayed at the park for three hours, five days a week for 10 weeks, Larsen added.

This year the club told Redmond officials it couldn’t afford the $4,000 fee so Redmond Parks developed a system that eliminated the fee, but limits the kids’ visits to the park. With the new arrangement, Camp Ardmore’s larger group of kids cannot use Idylwood Park at all and must use sites in Bellevue. Smaller groups of fewer than 50 children can come to the park at no charge, but only twice a week.

“While not an ideal solution from either standpoint, it allows some beach use by the Bellevue Boys and Girls Cub, while keeping (Redmond Parks) costs in check,” Larsen said in an e-mail to a parent.

Many kids will move on to Bellevue shores at sites such as Clyde Beach Park and Meydenbauer Bay, where there are no policies regulating group use.

According to Shelly Brittingham, assistant director of park reservations, the city of Bellevue currently has several large day camp and youth groups that use the city’s beach sites regularly. Bellevue does not charge these groups to use these sites, she said, unless they want to reserve a picnic shelter for exclusive use.

Law said the decision saddens her. It also infuriates her and other parents.

“The Bellevue Boys and Girls Club is a wonderful organization that takes care of the neighborhood kids by offering programs at affordable (emphasis added) prices so that even low-income families can afford it,” she said.

According to the nonprofit organization, the club has nearly 8,000 members and provides programs for more than half the school-age population of Bellevue.

In addition, Law said that kids and camp counselors have always made sure to clean up after themselves after they use the beach.

Bellevue parent Michelle Sutter said the arrangement is downright ridiculous. It’s a public beach and paid for with tax dollars, she said.

“Another frustrating point is the fact that the club is a nonprofit organization, not a private group that has disposable dollars,” she added.

Other parents were upset that if the club had complied with the fee, summer camp fees could have been raised and the program would no longer be affordable to many.

Though an amicable solution for some, the arrangement means a slice out of a favorite pastime for Camp Ardmore kids.

I have heard of people who have not been able to afford their dinner tab and have been sent to the kitchen to wash dishes in exchange. I’m sure there are parents and community members who would have been more than willing to do some sort of a group clean-up or maintenance project to assist the city of Redmond and to put kids first.

Carrie Wood is a writer for the Bellevue Reporter. She can be reached at cwood@reporternewspapers.com or 425-453-4290.