Posted on 10/05/2013 6:24:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Arizona town of Tusayan, on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, has 558 residents and 1,000 hotel rooms. And by Friday, it had $325,000 to reopen temporarily shuttered Grand Canyon National Park.
"The reason we exist is the Grand Canyon National Park. This closure is devastating," said Greg Bryan, Tusayan's mayor and the owner of a Best Western hotel. The town is offering to fund a partial reopening of the park that would allow visitors to drive through on a main road and stop at overlooks.
As the federal-government shutdown entered its fifth day Saturday, state and local governments were searching for ways to keep attractions open, especially in places where local economies largely depend on the parks. Some are willing to pay to keep the parks going during these final crucial weeks of prime tourist season, before winter sets in.
In Wisconsin, officials are keeping seven federally subsidized state-owned forest, wildlife and recreation areas open, even after receiving instructions from the federal Department of the Interior to close them. The state lands depend on federal funds for 18% of their budgets, or $701,000 total.
"I really don't think it is a defiance, but fulfilling our obligations," said Cathy Stepp, an official with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which administers the state properties. "We are doing everything we can with social media, radio outlets and news to get the word out that we're open. The calls are coming in like crazy—people are planning to come here with camping trips every year, weddings, reunions."
Lawmakers in Maryland have worked out a small exception to the federal shutdown to allow several hundred family members to honor firefighters who died in the line of duty at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Md., this weekend.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Closing the cemetery and battlefield because of the federal government shutdown “is a disgrace. It's our national shame right now,” said Leeman, 70, a retiree and Navy veteran from Xenia, Ohio. “It's a tragedy. It makes you want to cry.”......
Federally subsidized. As in paid for by taxpayers. So now, the Feds, after taking the peoples money once in taxes, is holding the parks closed as ransom and getting paid again to remove barricades. Talk about double taxation!
“A spokeswoman for Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, said the brief opening didn’t present an additional cost. “They’re just unlocking the gate and allowing families of fallen firefighters to pay their respects at the memorial,” the spokeswoman said.”
And the WW II memorial and Lincoln Memorial and Veterans Memorial costs what to keep open as opposed to paying for barricades?
I think the national parks should be seized by the states. Here in Michigan the state parks are nicer than the national parks anyway.
At Mt. Rushmore even the state roads where you can still see the monument were blocked with orange cones by National Park Service. Turning down the offer of state workers to keep Mt. Rushmore open was asinine.
Harry Reid did it.
“... the national parks should be seized by the states...”
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Perhaps South Carolina should lead the way and seize Fort Sumter National Monument...
Herry I don’t care about a kid with cancer Reid and Barack I didn’t do it Obama are the guilty parties no doubt.
Any South Carolina FReepers out there?
Speaking of that, there is a an opinion "piece" in the Washington Post by Colbert King: "The Rise of the New Confederacy"
[less than 300 word excerpt of a long article] "It took on new force with fears of the federal government in Washington interfering with their cherished way of life. It gathered steam with the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. And it all came into full flower when shore batteries fired on Fort Sumter. It was the spirit of the Old Confederacy, a state-sponsored rebellion hellbent on protecting its “peace and safety” from the party that took possession of the government on March 4, 1861.
[BIG SNIP]
Legislation aimed at suppressing votes is pending across the country, notably in the Deep South.
Hold on to that Confederate money, y’all. Jim Crow just might rise again.
But it’s here in Washington where the New Confederacy’s firebrands are really holding court. Many of them first appeared after the 2010 midterm elections and when the scope of the president’s economic recovery program was taking form. Unlike their predecessors, however, members of this group hail from Dixie and beyond, though I stress there is no evidence that the New shares the racist views of the Old. The view on race is not the common denominator. The view on government is.
These conservative extremists, roughly 60 of them by CNN’s count, represent congressional districts in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
But don’t go looking for a group by the name of New Confederacy. They earned that handle from me because of their visceral animosity toward the federal government and their aversion to compassion for those unlike themselves.
They respond, however, to the label “tea party.” By thought, word and deed, they must be making Jefferson Davis proud today."
You’re right. Reid stopped a vote in the Senate on funding the park service. Apparently the white house ordered everything imaginable be closed.
Our parks are awesome, especially this time of year. What is your favorite one?
Aren’t the colors coming in a bit early around here? Makes me think winter is going to be a tough one.
One note: the new 1812 fancy-pants Battlefield Park is closed.
Oddly as I read these I think...
This is why the power that is not enumerated to the federal government, belongs to the States...
It’s our tax money, confiscated by the federal government, and this boo boo is closing OUR parks by withholding money?
We are tasting the life socialism, where everything is
EQUAL, except for the tyrant in charge. He’s still living the life of king, using our airplane to fly around the country and playing golf. We need to replace him.
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