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By M.SEAN KILPATRICK
Rappahannock Newt Staff Writer
President Clinton’s “economic stimulus package” might trickle down to the Shenandoah National Park this summer, according to Park Superintendent Bill Wade.
He made his comments to representatives of the eight counties that border the Park at a meeting of the Park Advisory Council Thursday night at the Library.
The panel was formed late last summer to help ease tensions between the Park and its neighbors.
Speaking to about two dozen people, Supt. Wad? began by outlining the damage to the park from two recent storms that kept parts of the Skyline Drive closed until March 26.
With the Drive closed by ice and snowdrifts, park visitation was down, Wade reported. “This year we had about 20,000 visitors in March. Normally we would have had about 70,000,” he said. Although the Drive is now open to traffic, about 15 miles of administrative roads within the park and 85 miles of trails still are blocked by trees brought down by the ice storm, he added.
“If it will just stop raining, we have enough people on hand to work on the cleanup,” he said.
Although the cleanup from the last two storms will cost about $220,000, Wade said the cost should not have to come out of the Park’s already strapped budget. “The (National) Park Service has a special emergency fund we can tap for this,” he said.
Supt. Wade was hopeful that some money from President Clinton’s economic stimulus package will be available at the Park. “I do not know what the status of that is right now,” he said; “if it passes as proposed the Park stands to get $2.5 million - perhaps a bit more.”
That money would be available in four categories, he said: natural resource protection, infrastructure maintenance, restoration of summer operations, and road maintenance.
“We have submitted requests’ for each of those categories and if it (the money) comes through we would be hiring about 50 to 60 extra summer people," he said.
“We should be able to bring most of our operations back to normal. But it all depends on when
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