Mainella Considering Outsourcing All Staffing For 3 National Parks - ENS

WASHINGTON, DC, May 10, 2005 (ENS) - "National Park Service Director Fran Mainella is considering contracting out the entire operations of three national parks, according to an April 15 memo signed by her and released to the public today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national organization of natural resources government employees.

The three parks under review are Boston National Historical Park, San Juan Island National Historic Site in Washington state, and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Altogether, these three parks employ 312 National Park Service employees on a full-time basis. In the memo headed "Competitive Sourcing Update," Mainella cited these three parks as the subject of “preliminary planning efforts for FY 2005." "We will be reviewing whole parks to achieve the most efficient operations possible," she wrote.

Previously, the National Park Service (NPS) looked to outsource certain types of jobs, such as maintenance, among several parks but is now looking at park units in their entirety for future bids by private firms. Mainella testified today before the Subcommittee on Parks of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the NPS budget requested by the Bush administration for Fiscal Year 2006. She did not mention the plan to put entire parks up for competitive outsourcing.

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Still, it is clear that the National Park Service is struggling to meet the needs of the parks. This struggle was recognized Monday by a bi-partisan group of 36 U.S. Senators who sent a letter to the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee requesting an additional $150 million for the national parks in FY 2006 over and above the Bush administration's budget request. "The public expects America's national parks - our nation's heritage - be adequately protected and visitors educated and inspired about these natural and cultural wonders. We urge you to do all you can to provide this modest but important increase to the operating budget of the National Park System in FY 2006 to meet this need," the senators wrote."

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http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2005/2005-05-10-09.asp#anchor2

Second story down on the list.