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Rep. Wolf
to Park:
'open up'
Closure now
under review
By BILL WALSH
Rappahannock News Special Writer
Republican Frank Wolf routed his opponent in the recent election for the newlv-constructed 10th Congressional District seat, turning taunts of “pothole congressman” to his advantage.
Yes, he said, he did woFk hard on local issues for his constituents, and residents in Fauquier and surrounding jurisdictions — many of whom the sixterm congressman is representing for the first time — witnessed Wolfs work first hand this week.
Citing fiscal shortfalls and, for good measure, adding environmental damage that can be healed, if at all, only by time and rest, the National Park Service announced last week that it would be closing some 70 miles — more than two-thirds —of the Skyline Drive for the next six months.
But that announcement met with angry denounciation by several Virginia lawmakers and their constituents, and led to a Dec. 1 meeting of legislators, Park Service officials and area businessmen, and a discussion of the entire park system.
Following Tuesday’s session on Capitol Hill, officials of the Shenandoah National Park said that they would take the matter under study and make a decision on the drive’s immediate future on or by Dec. 10.
“The meeting went well," Wolfs press secretary Nancy Suzich said Tuesday afternoon. “All of the members that were there and the people from the valley ... made a strong and compelling case for keeping the Skyline Drive open,” she said.
“The key decision, the key promise that came out of the meeting was that they are going to reach a decision by Dec. 10. Jack Davis, the associate director of the Park Service, made that promise,” Ms. Suzich said, “and he also promised to take everything that was presented to him ... into consideration in making that decision. ”
Wolf felt that the case was so strong and wellpresented, Ms. Suzich reported, that closing the park has all but ceased to be an option. “The members of Congress and others who were there first asked that the Skyline Drive stay open, and ...
See Drive, Page A-8
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