http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-85123sy0mar21,0,6855891.story?coll=dp-opinion-bothead
More on Monroe
Some thoughts about the national park option
  
Daily Press editorial
March 21, 2007

    At 7 this evening there will be a discussion in Hampton on the subject of "The Case for a Fort Monroe National Park." The assembled panel should make the event worthwhile, and perhaps the excerpts below, pardon the length, from an Associated Press story will offer grist for the discussion, which will be in the Sandy Bottom Nature Park visitors center.

    About 50 miles of stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Bedford, Amherst and Nelson counties remain closed since a mid-February ice storm scattered broken tree limbs and brush debris along the scenic route. ...

    "Cleanup remains an uphill task with just three district workers," said Larry Pierceall, a parkway staff worker. ... "We don't have enough staff to do what we need to do."

    Closing higher-elevation points is common during this time of year, said Phil Francis, superintendent of the parkway.

    Still, the staff for the 469-mile parkway is taking a hit with 58 permanent jobs left vacant.

    "There are vacancies in 30 percent of the maintenance staff," Francis said. "We don't have the funds to fill those jobs. It's been a pretty tough year." ...

    The parkway has an annual federal budget of $14 million. ...

    Important milestones such as the 75th anniversary of the parkway in 2010 and the centennial celebration of the National Park Service in 2016 could mean more money, Francis said.

    This is sad commentary on the state of the National Park Service, that it does not have sufficient funds to maintain the parkway. And the parkway gets 20 million visitors a year. Fort Monroe, it seems, would be fortunate to draw 1 percent of that number.

    Granted, the comparison of Monroe and the parkway is somewhat strained, but it suggests that Monroe would hardly be a priority within the park service budget - a budget so inadequate that volunteers have to be used to help clear a scenic highway that draws 20 million visitors a year.

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