Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, other national parks to reopen during shutdown

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, other national parks to reopen during shutdown

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News

The National Park Service reached agreements late Friday to keep some of the U.S.'s most iconic national parks and landmarks open during the federal government shutdown, breaking a logjam that had blocked vital tourist revenue for several states.

Among the attractions that will reopen as early as Saturday are the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and Rocky Mountain National Park.

All of the deals are structured similarly: States where the attractions are located will pay to recall National Park Service personnel from furlough, with either state funds or private donations.

The deals aren't cheap:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement that New York would shell out $61,600 a day to keep Liberty Island National Park open beginning this weekend.
Arizona will be on the hook for $651,000 bill to reopen Grand Canyon National Park for just one week, NBC station KPNX of Phoenix reported after Gov. Jan Brewer tweeted the "Great News!"

Gov. Dennis Daugaard said in a statement that South Dakota would pay $15,200 a day from private donations to reopen Mount Rushmore beginning Monday.

And Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a statement that Colorado would fork over $362,700 to reopen its parks and monuments, notably Rocky Mountain National Park.


The federal shutdown last week closed all 401 national parks, resulting in furloughs for more than 20,000 Park Service employees.
The announcements come a day after Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's office announced that it had struck a deal with the Interior Department to reopen eight of the state's national parks and monuments.


Utah will pay $1.67 million to get people back in its national parks for up to 10 days. None of the payments will be reimbursed unless Congress passes a law to authorize refunds.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Before posting here remember that political commentary is only acceptable in the political forum.

[Tommyboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tommyboy]

I was in St. George, UT last week for a softball tournament. We ended a little earlier than hoped for but I had Friday to do something else. The news said that the State of Utah was going to open the National Parks. I was able to get out to Zion in time to have it almost all to myself. The shuttles were not running and I was able to ride my bike all the way to the end of the canyon only seeing a few walkers and bikers. It was a beautiful day and well worth the trip. It made my trip to be able to see the Park again. It was wonderful to see cars streaming into the Park when I left.
Tom

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

How things work has been kind of random. Initially they'd blocked highway pulloffs at Mount Rushmore, including the one where people could just barely see a profile of George in the distance, but of course people stopped anyway, even though they ended up blocking traffic/were still technically in the lane. Which latter could have been predicted by anyone who has driven many National Parks, I'd think. They opened those up again within a few days.

The only thing I had planned for our vacation that the federal shutdown impacted was the Devonian Fossil Gorge in Coralville, Iowa -- not a national park but partially run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, so I wasn't sure what we'd find there. The visitor's center and the drive up to it was closed (it's up on a bluff), as was the drive down to the parking lot along the gorge, but the overflow parking lot below the visitor's center was open, as were the bathrooms, and there was a parking lot by the dam that was partially open as well. I guess the visitor's center is run by the Army Engineers, but the bathrooms are maintained by some state or local organization. We'd been there before and knew that displays above the gorge have most of the info you get in the Visitor's Center anyhow, so we were glad we gave it a shot.

[AbigailBlack Banned Find all posts View Profile Close AbigailBlack]

Sometimes these shutdowns can impact your daily routine and life in a very different way than that you've imagined for. The cripples in lives is not what we've signed in for.

[AbigailBlack Banned Find all posts View Profile Close AbigailBlack]

Sometimes these shutdowns can impact your daily routine and life in a very different way than that you've imagined for. The cripples in lives is not what we've signed in for.

The day beings with a sad news.