CHARLESTOWN — Promoters and town officials agree that user fees for events at Ninigret Park should be “fair and equitable.”

But the two disagree on what’s fair and equitable.

To event promoters, a flat fee would be the way to go.

Organizers of the four largest events held annually at the park — the Big Apple Circus, Seafood Festival, Rhythm & Roots, and Reggae Festival –– say they would accept a “modest increase” from the current $2,500 daily fee.

(The flat fee is also endorsed by the town’s Economic Improvement Commission.)

But members of the Parks and Recreation Commission, which manages the 227-acre park, prefer that the town charge a percentage of the events’ gross revenue, a $1 add-on to ticket sales or a park-development fee that would help fund a projected 20-year redevelopment of the park.

Any fee changes would take effect in the 2009 season.

Plans to hike fees for the current season were shelved due to strong opposition from event organizers and some local business owners.

The commission is expected to hold a meeting this month to vote on a recommendation to the council.

The Town Council recently adopted a master plan to guide a 20-year makeover for the former training grounds of young Navy pilots, among them former President George H.W. Bush.

The fee hikes would help fund some of the proposed developments, including a concert/festival center, a community center and a Naval Air Memorial. The estimated price tag: $7 million.

“We are not adamantly against any type of rate increase,” Chuck Wentworth, promoter of the Rhythm & Roots Festival, told the commission at its meeting yesterday. “Our biggest concern is the way it’s being proposed.

“Dealing with a percentage of our gross,” Wentworth said, “it just doesn’t work for me in terms of ticket prices and other things I have to deal with. That and the fact of being audited by members of the Town Council.

“You really don’t have a right to look at our books,” Wentworth said. “And if there is a rate increase, we’d like to see something in return.”

Wentworth estimated that the four events have paid a total of about $200,000 to the town over the past decade, “and we have not seen any improvements.”

Event organizers, he said, have single-handedly financed most of the infrastructural improvements, including installing the electrical and water connections and building a pavilion.

Moreover, organizers said, with contractual mandates –– including insurance and police and fire coverage –– and other expenses related to putting on the show at Ninigret –– including staging, fencing, and portable toilets –– the park’s usage fee skyrockets.

Lisa DiBello, Parks and Recreation director, said the town favors a sliding fee schedule because charging all events the same fee is not fair to those that are starting up and attract a smaller audience.

For example, she said, this year the park hosted, for the first time, a Primer Auto Show. The town charged the auto show a $500 flat fee. The car show is expected to return next May.

The town is trying to attract more events to the park to help fund the planned improvements.

Still, commission members said, a compromise may be necessary to ensure that none of the current large events leaves.

At least two of the events –– the Big Apple Circus and Rhythm & Roots –– had said they would seek other venues for 2009 if the town increases its fees as announced. Such talk has since subsided.

IN RELATED business yesterday , the commission unanimously took the first step toward implementing the 20-year master plan for the park, recommending that the council request proposals to redesign the park’s entrance, extend and reconfigure a road to provide direct access to the senior center off Old Post Road, and build a community center near the park entrance.

Also last night, commission members approved an amendment to the Big Apple Circus contract that will allow the first trucks to arrive at the park as early as 12:01 a.m. on July 5.

(Town officials will open the park at midnight to let in the trucks.)

Performances of the circus’s 30th-anniversary show, “Celebrate!” are scheduled for July 8-13.

marmenta@projo.com