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Show Rubys Inn Challenges BCNP On Recent In-Park Road Closures BRYCE "I guess why we're meeting here today is to see if we ought to go back to homesteading or if we ought to buy more beds," said a frustrated MonDell Syrett at the Feb. 8 meeting at Rubys Inn with Supt, Fred Fagergren of Bryce Canyon National Park. Syrett, one of the co-owners of Rubys Inn and his family members, who own and operate the popular resort adjacent to the park, were meeting with Fagergren and other park personnel regarding Rubys Inn's complaint to the park about recent closures of roads. Road closures, they claimed, have resulted in shortened visits to the park which has affected revenues at the resort and other businesses in the area dependent upon income from tourism. Syrett was quoting his grandfather grand-father Reuben Syrett who founded Rubys Inn in the 1920s. "Ruby" Syrett told a magazine writer he had founded his inn only after tourists found they couldn't see all there was to see at Bryce in a single day, and, desperate for a place to sleep came knocking on his door. After he and his wife and family tired of sleeping on the floor, he started adding beds. When tourists began coming in ever greater numbers, he began building cabins and adding more beds. "Ruby" had never planned to be an innkeeper, just a homesteader with cows and a family to care for, but what he started so long ago has now grown into a multi-million dollar operation known world wide. It has not only provided employment employ-ment for several generations of Syretts but has also been the principal employer for hundreds of residents of Garfield County. The closure of the park in November due to Washington's budget problems, was bad enough, the Syretts told Fagergren, but recent road closures at the park in a year when the area has experienced the least snow in more than 25 years had the Syretts asking why. On hand for the question and answer session were representatives for Utah's Congressional delegation, delega-tion, Garfield County Commissioners Commis-sioners from the BryceBryce Valley and EscalanteBoulder areas, and numerous business owners and operators and employees who count upon tourism for their livelihood. Garfield County, which once depended upon the use of its natural resources almost exclusively for income through agriculture, mining and timber, now sees tourism as providing an essential source of revenue. After experiencing a reduction in use of natural resources through environmental restraints over the years, the county is sensitive to any threat to tourism revenues which are at least a partial solution to its losses. Prior to the November closure at the park due to Washington's failure to arrive at a budget, the park had a large part of its main road closed during peak summer tourism months for two years in a row while reconstruction was underway. under-way. The road had reopened only a few months earlier to allow park visitors full access to its attractions. Now, with losses at Rubys Inn alone estimated at more than $250,000, in just over two months, Fagergren was being asked why some of the parks roads were still being closed, causing visitors to i spend only a brief hour or two in the park before completely leaving the area without a stayover. A letter to Fagergren from the Syretts which MonDell Syrett read aloud, reminded him that in the late 1970's there was a move by the park concessionaire to extend its open time into the shoulder season. Local communities petitioned then-Senator then-Senator Jake Garn for help in keeping the park open year round affording the opportunity for more jobs. Rubys Inn was operating snowmobile tours in the park, and agreed to move their tours outside the park if the park would keep its roads open so that visitors could view its attractions. Garn obtained a special appropriation of $267,000 for snow removal equipment and the NPS was to fund annual recurring recur-ring maintenance costs in return. Syrett said Rubys Inn made its decision then to operate as a year round business, investing millions of dollars to develop facilities and services for year round visitation. For several years the agreement was kept, but has since been only nominally honored. Emphasizing visitor safety, Fagergren explained that the lack of a third snow plow operator since November had restricted their efforts to keep some of the more affected areas open. Despite the lack of heavy snowfalls this winter, Fagergren blamed the problems on blowing and drifting of collected snow in specific areas. He said that the higher elevations at the south end of the park and winds there create quite different conditions. He explained that certain "S" curves before Farview present a safety concern and that park roads, while of good quality are not designed for speed such as on major highways and interstates. Park roads have more curves and more significant slopes, he said. Rod Syrett questioned the costs of the new road, some $8 million, and whether it is more difficult for the park to maintain than the old road. Fagergren did not acknowledge any problems with the road itself but said, "No, I'm saying that given one position down, it's always going to be difficult to keep any condition of road ..." Castagnetto broke in to explain that the problems occur largely because of wind conditions and on cut slopes. Blaine Anderson said that he had (See Closed Park Roads Bring Questions On Page 5A) Closed Park Roads Bring Questions From Page 1 flown over the park on Jan. 29 and found the road to be completely dry for its entire distance and he saw no three-foot drifts. In responding, Castagnetto said he based his decisions deci-sions upon what his operators told him. Fagergren said his inability to obtain a replacement operator for the snowplow was due, he said, largely to restraints placed upon hiring that require him to attempt to hire from available federal employees affected by recent reduc-tion-in-force decisions within the National Park Service. He is required re-quired by law to exhaust every possible source of displaced workers and RIF personnel before attempting attemp-ting any new hires. In answer to a question from Rod Syrett, Fagergren said he is not permitted to hire local experienced out-of-work people capable of running run-ning the plow even on a temporary basis. "What we need to do," said Syrett," Sy-rett," ... is get those laws changed. ... that's just crazy to me that trucks are sitting there and snow-plows snow-plows ..." Asked about volunteer help, by Greg Pollock, Fagergren said, "We would be happy to accept donated time from anyone." He added that Congress places certain restrictions on what they can accept, and that a volunteer cannot do work that would replace a paid employee. Rod Syrett said, "I'm not sure we volunteered to replace another worker, but we've volunteered to help get that road open and been turned down on it." Bob Syrett said he told Facility Manager Micheal Castagnetto, "Rod will take our snowplower up there and open it for you right now." Fagergren said that Castagnetto, who rejected the Syrett's offer of help was "reacting to a volunteer person and equipment. It's very different dif-ferent if we have a volunteer who signs up with the federal government govern-ment and operates our equipment." "When did that rule change?" asked Bob Syrett. He said that in 1980 the county used its own equipment to open the road, with the superintendent's approval, in the spring of the year because the park was simply going to wait for it to melt. Retiree Joe Hughes, Cannonville, Cannon-ville, with 35 years of experience on Bryce Canyon's roads and trails, said the schedule was much the same then as now for road maintenance, main-tenance, except that, when necessary neces-sary to keep roads open, the facility manager, roads and trails foreman and even the superintendent would pitch in and help on the heavy equipment, i Charlie Francisco, Tropic, said he had "pushed snow for the state for 27 years and I think this is the least snow we've ever had in 27 years, so I don't see why you have snow problems this year. "The reality is," said Fagergren, "that the park is here for more than economic benefit. ... The mission of the National park Service, first and foremost, is to assure that those resources within that boundary are there in perpetuity. ... So, while it may be uncomfortable for some, realize that the park service has been charged . . . with protecting the last of the best of American heritage. So, it's not simply "snowplowing." He said that the park is concerned not only with current visitation but with the public of the future. Fagergren said, " in '88 on most of our employees, we would have been paying 1 5 to 20 percent retirement retire-ment and benefits ... currenUy we're paying 40 to 45 percent. For the last three years, the National Park Service, as with most federal employees, ... has received between 2 and 4 percent pay increases. Those have been totally absorbed out of our existing budgets. We received no funds for any of those. So, the reality is that most parks . . . can project that at the rate we're going, by the year 2000, we will be eliminating permanent employees." Utah's Congressional delegation was represented by Greg Engeman, Sen. Orrin Hatch; Bruce Richeson, Sen. Robert F. Bennett; and Rick Arial, Rep. James V. Hansen. Representing the park, in addition to Fagergren and Castagnetto, Casta-gnetto, were Richard Bryant, Larry Nielson and Cheryl Schreier. Others included Ken Sizemore, Five County Association of Governments; Gov-ernments; Commissioners Louise Liston and Clare Ramsay, Garfield County; Mayor John Mathews, Cannonville; Mayor Jean Seiler, Tropic; Manager Greg Pollock, Bryce Canyon Airport, and a large representative group of area business busi-ness owners and operators. |