This article in MSNBC concludes that the current NPS budget is inadequate to support the burden of upkeep, maintenance, visitor services, and security in the NPS system. Interesting reading, whether you agree or disagree with the conclusions.

National Parks Weak: Understaffed and underfunded
eledbetter@rypn.org

Erik

Good find. As a former NPS employee (1994-2000) I can't find fault with any of it. That article should be required reading.

As I have said so many times, The devil is not in the amount of money, but in the management of it.

Dave Crosby

bing@epix.net

At the risk of making a political statement and offending the moderator, I honestly think that money is being spent in places that it may never be appreciated by the american public. I read somewhere that the US has spent 200 billion so far on the war in Iraq, imagine taking a tiny fraction of that amount and investing it back into the US. I know that Erik is going to read this, as he has read countless other posts of mine, but I gotta say I love Steamtown, I've traveled there twice ,hundred of miles across international boarders to go there, as our Canadian government would never dream of having an actual working steam museum. But I fear that steamtown will be short-lived if it is not wholehearted supported (financially and otherwise). I would really like it if it were still there for my kids to enjoy.

> This article in MSNBC concludes that the
> current NPS budget is inadequate to support
> the burden of upkeep, maintenance, visitor
> services, and security in the NPS system.
> Interesting reading, whether you agree or
> disagree with the conclusions.

Erik, I categorically disagree with the conclusions.

Anybody who has been to Steamtown knows that there's money for New Durangos, Cushmans, walkways between the roundhouse and the backshop, tool cabinets, etc. As for the Superintendent, he runs this like a private business. Its our business.

They have other ways of saving money, but the truth is, they don't want to run trains. For years they spent something like 16% of their 5 mil annual budget on a sweetheart deal with some relic called "community central energy"

It shouldn't be up to an unelected career bureacrat to decide what they are doing. Does the military decide what war to fight?

The national park service is in desperate need of reform. As we noted a few weeks ago, the park service spent millions of dollars on overseas travel, acting like some international consulting firm. When asked by the inspectors, they claimed that they were reimbursed. When the inspector said "show me the money" they showed a penny on the dollar.

This business about losing money or costs is bogus. Steamtown doesn't exist to turn a profit. Do they measure the costs to heat the core complex against admission sales?

It was also noted that the superintendent blaimed his shop crews and locomotive for not running on the scheduled opening weekend last year, when the truth was they didn't get a cobntract in place.

Fool me once....



voxverum@yahoo.com

> It shouldn't be up to an unelected career
> bureacrat to decide what they are doing.
> Does the military decide what war to fight?

My goodness Vox, I wouldn't hold up the elected U.S. Congress as any model of fiscal prudence in recent years, under either party's leadership! I'm not sure elected vs. unelected is the issue. And anyway, how does elections connect to park management? We can't elect park superintendants....

Anyhow, I didn't necessarily post this article with the idea that it spoke necessarily to Steamtown NHS as opposed to any other park. I haven't been to Steamtown since 2000 and can't speak to how much this article does or does not apply there myself--I'd be more confortable talking about what I see at Harper's Ferry or C&O Canal or Shenandoah where I am more often.

If you want my opinion, however, I think both are probably true--the NPS IS underfunded, and it also does not manage well the money it is given. They are not mutually exclusive in my book.

Congress does have a nasty habit of creating new parks and monuments (I went to two in Colorado just recently, Great Sand Dunes and Black Canyon of the Gunnison) without raising budgets to match. They also have a habit of creting a lot of unfunded mandates by way of security policies, etc. And I think there has been a lot of bipartisan denial about the fact that many of the great parks are now living out the last bit of depreciation on infrastructure that was built in the New Deal era, and no one wants to face the cost of replacing it.

All of that said, yes, the current travel revelations are distressing and can be matched by other tales of park service mismanagement. It also fits with a borader pattern of weak administration at the Department of the Interior overall--don't even get into the issue of the native American mineral rights administration or we'll never get out of the swamp and the misery.

I think the sad part is individual rangers and curators and park people are among the most dedicated you'll ever meet--its not something someone goes into to get rich. The money management problems seem to be in the bureaucratic culture. But then again, I think the scarcity of funds is also a real issue for the system as a whole, whether or not it is for Steamtown NHS.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

eledbetter@rypn.org

> > I think the sad part is individual rangers
> and curators and park people are among the
> most dedicated you'll ever meet--its not
> something someone goes into to get rich.

Amen!

voxverum@yahoo.com

> And anyway, how does
> elections connect to park management? We
> can't elect park superintendants....

Erik, maybe that's true and maybe its not, but I'll reserve that for lawyers and talking heads.

The problem isn't that we can't elect them, its that we can't FIRE them. Its accountability that missing.

Steamtown has been complaining of fiscal issues for years, yet it found the money to promote an ineffective maintenance chief (yes that is opinion but how many engines are still in pieces in the shop?) to Ass't Superintendent and get around the rules about having him supervise his spouse.

I for one miss Terry Gess. I think he was a better superintendent and a better human being. At least he showed up! Nobody's perfect, but I don't think he'd attempt to cure the park's bleeding by cutting off its head. You think no choo-choo is going to make people go to Steamtown? People don't go to see the pretty roundouse, they go to ride.

I'm beginning to wonder if killing the excursion is the way Hagen gets promoted to a nice regional position. If he's promoted in a few years, we'll know he was the manchurian candidate. Of course you have to like how he had another priority in March and left his underling to face the questions alone.

Don't judge Scranton by the NPS follies, the trolley museum runs and runs well! They know what they are doing!

> I think the sad part is individual rangers
> and curators and park people are among the
> most dedicated you'll ever meet--its not
> something someone goes into to get rich.

Amen to the Amen.

TJG

Port Huron Museum

tjgaffney@phmuseum.org