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Mathews Arm Campground in Shenandoah National Park will remain closed for the next five years due to continued funding deficiencies parkwide, Superintendent J.W. Wade announced this week.
The 180-site campground, located at Milepost 22 along the Skyline Drive in the Nroth District of the park, has not opened for a full camping season since 1989.
“We continue to have to make difficult operational choices in light of our overall needs,” said Supt. Wade. “We still have limitations on staffing and financial resources to operate the park.”
He said that, although a muchneeded funding increase in 1994 will allow restoring some operations that had been curbed in recent years and filling vacancies that had been left open longer than normal, there are still continuing deficiencies.
*We are completing an analysis of our projected needs and future funding outlook, and we’ve concluded that our infrastructure is deteriorating faster than we’ve been able to keep up with it given the funding sources normally available.
“The number of leaky roofs is increasing, utility systems are breaking and our aging motor vehicles are becoming unsafe and expensive to operate,” he said.
Supt. Wade explained that as in the private sector, deferring investment in infrastructure repair and replacement significantly increases the expense and probability of failures.
“We plan to use the estimated $500,000 in savings from not operating Mathews Arm Campground for the next five years to directly re-invest in our infrastructure needs,” Supt. Wade said. “This will give us a start in reducing the deterioration, but we may need to take further actions in the future.”
According to Larry Hakel, North
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