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Show Is Government Competing? An Open Letter To Bryce Canyon National Park Superintendent Superinten-dent Bob Reynolds: For some 20 years we have endeavored en-deavored to provide good wrecker service into Bryce Canyon National Park, and it is our opinion that we have accomplished a fine service. Every change of management in the park, brings new changes we have to abide with, and your present policy pol-icy of having park rangers become more "helpful" to the visitors, by unlocking cars - chain-towing them out of a snow bank - jump-starting them - and so on down the line - is indeed admirable, less costly to the traveling public, yet it does take up much of your rangers time, I would think. Of course, if these services are included in their job description, then your rangers are stuck with wrecker service duty. With the new plastic body parts on cars, we have been forced to install in-stall expensive "damage free" towing tow-ing equipment on our three wreckers, wreck-ers, to prevent tow damage. Of course, we have to carry expensive insurance to pay for any damage caused by the tow person. I would hope, if your rangers happen to chain-damage an auto, the American taxpayer doesn't have to pay the bill. Since we are "AAA" wreckers, we have to travel into the park for a "AAA" member, if in fact we are called, but we are endeavoring to obtain a ruling in this matter for "AAA" management. For some 30 years, Foster's' .has tried to be "helpful" to our tourists - bending over backwards in their behalf - but many, many, times we find it backfires back-fires in our face. As you gentlemen well know, my sons Alfred and Neil have to drop their business duties du-ties immediately to make EMT emergency trips into the park, such as for the little boy who fell recently re-cently in the park. My sons do not receive ten cents for their services, but I am sure the rangers who help them are on a steady payroll. The traveling tourist into Bryce Canyon National Park needs, and actually demands, adequate wrecker service, as well as all other services of food, motels, etc., and I would hope, the proper roll of government would not be in competition with private enterprise, but this fact remains re-mains an age-old problem between government and private enterprise that we can never resolve here. Your decision for the government rangers to be more "helpful" to tourisLs who run off the road, lock their keys in their auto, have a fender bender, etc., has indeed, rendered ren-dered our Bryce Wrecker Service relatively rel-atively valueless. Just last summer your rangers were "helpful" to over 150 lockouts and autos in trouble, a huge percentage of our wrecker income. in-come. So any informed businessman business-man would be forced into a closeout situation, or forced to drastically curtail his operations. I enclose a copy of a Court of Claims decision on this very matter, in which a government decision rendered an asset as-set valueless. Over the last 30 years, Foster's has always maintained good working work-ing relations with the park and the Rangers, and we desire it to remain this way. I can understand your thinking, when some little old lady locks her keys in her car, when your Rangers are right there on the spot, and we have to charge her $25.00 service fee that she has to spend out of her vacation monies - man, it's frustrating. frustrat-ing. Yet on 10 percent of our calls out to Rainbow Point (60 miles round trip) we find they have solved their immediate problem with a coat hanger from another motorist, or the tools your rangers have purchased. pur-chased. Indeed, this is also frustrating frustrat-ing to us, as well as a total loss for the 60 miles. If she were "outside" the park, at Ruby's Inn for instance, she still has to pay for her mistake. We point out, part of this little old lady's money helps us maintain instant wrecker service for a wreck in the park, when in fact, you really do need a $70,000 wrecker to handle the job. A large bus off the road, or broken down, really needs an immense wrecker to handle this job, which indeed, we have available. avail-able. Also, the little old lady's money is helping us provide needed wrecker service in a very poor county that otherwise cannot adequately ade-quately support the good wrecker service we have been supplying. Our citizenry will eventually have to call Cedar City or Richfield for a wrecker unless a Panguitch entrepreneur en-trepreneur can set up adequate wreckers, and show a "profit". As the CEO for Foster's, I have ordered a curtailment of our wreckers wreck-ers and the service we have been providing, to come into line with the new economics of the Bryce area, commensurate with your "tourist helpful" decision. Al Foster FOSTER'S Bryce Canyon |