Park budget shortfall results in staff cuts, reduced maintenance

Park Superintendent Pat Reed says the park’s financial troubles are the result of no funding increases since 1998. In fact, the park’s $2.2 million budget was cut by $10,000 last year, he said.

“We can’t do as much because the cost for utilities and supplies is higher,” Reed said. “We have to find a way to absorb those costs.”

As a result, the Chattanooga area’s only national park will hire fewer seasonal employees this summer. That will mean fewer programs such as guided tours and a growing backlog of maintenance, from cleaning monuments to mowing.

The park isn’t alone in its problems. A recent nationwide survey of 12 national parks, compiled by the Coalition of Concerned National Park Retirees, found that all had eliminated some staff, eight faced lower budgets and half had cut visitor center hours.

Coalition spokesman Bill Wade says current park funding isn’t enough to provide adequate security to protect their natural resources and visitors.

The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is asking for additional money to manage more than 800 acres along the Moccasin Bend of the Tennessee River added in the past two years, Reed said.

Established by Congress in 1890, the park is the oldest military park in the nation with more than 9,000 acres in Tennessee and Georgia.

———

Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com