Posted on 10/22/2003 8:46:17 AM PDT by Between the Lines
Underfunding of park said to endanger ability to provide services.
Federal funding for the Blue Ridge Parkway falls 40 percent short of the costs of operating the 469-mile road, endangering the park's ability to serve its visitors and protect its scenic views, according to a study.
The business plan released Tuesday was prepared for the parkway by graduate business school students at Harvard, Emory and the University of California-Berkeley. It says the parkway's base budget has grown only by 0.5 percent over inflation since 1980.
Meanwhile, visitation increased by 2.2 percent annually from 1989 to 2002 -- from 16.1 million to 21.5 million visits (tops among 388 areas administered by the National Park Service). And labor costs are up 20 percent in real, inflation-adjusted terms, since 1995.
"Budgets, increasing visitation and an aging infrastructure have made it impossible to provide adequate visitor services and protect the views and other resources -- recreational, natural and cultural -- that define the Blue Ridge Parkway," parkway Superintendent Daniel Brown writes in the report.
Visitors to the parkway are estimated to spend nearly $2 billion annually in the 29 counties in Western North Carolina and southwest Virginia that adjoin the road.
But parkway officials have long been concerned about stagnant operating budgets and a development boom in the region that threatens the parkway's famous vistas.
Budget shortfalls mean parkway maintenance is less frequent or gets postponed, leading to the decay of infrastructure like water and sewers. According to the report, parkway officials have reduced the frequency with which they clean restrooms or mow grassy areas, and have removed thousands of linear feet of split- rail fence in recent years.
With budgets tight, workers must focus on essential tasks like patching the parkway, which means trails are not maintained and vegetation gets overgrown, obscuring the parkway vistas. According to the business plan, funding for routine maintenance of the parkway is currently at $6.1 million annually, well short of the $9.5 million required for full funding.
The report also concludes that the parkway needs an additional $1.6 million -- translating into 21 full-time workers -- to adequately serve all the people visiting the parkway with safety and law enforcement services, educational programs, and concessions and fee collection.
The report recommends up to $400,000 in cost savings, including saved travel time and expenses of up to $130,000 annually by installing video-conferencing equipment that could be used for intra-park meetings.
Recognizing that substantial increases in federal funding are not likely, the report also recommends that the parkway look at new revenue sources. Revenues from special Blue Ridge Parkway license plates in North Carolina and Virginia could exceed $150,000 annually, donation boxes at visitor centers could raise $30,000 annually, and a "Blue Ridge Ride" recreational cycling event could bring in up to $500,000 from registration fees.
Finally -- and most controversial -- the report suggests that collecting fees for use of the parkway could generate up to $10 million annually. Such a plan would undoubtedly be met with significant opposition, as the parkway has always been a toll-free road.
Brown said he hopes the business plan will spur discussion about how to preserve the parkway's future.
"We certainly hope that people will see that investing in the parkway is something that's good for the park and its visitors, and for the many adjoining communities," he said.
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