ONP put our their winter season presser today. Notable is this:
"Three members of the park’s nine-person road crew will change their duty schedules this week and work full-time on maintaining weekend access to Hurricane Ridge.
Of the remaining six crew members, one is a mechanic, charged with servicing and maintaining the park’s fleet of trucks and heavy equipment and three are tasked with keeping roads cleared and maintained along the park’s northern and eastern edges including Sol Duc, Lake Crescent, Elwha and Staircase. The remaining two road crew members are stationed in Quinault to keep the Quinault, Queets and Hoh Rain Forest roads clear and passable."
Three road crew, three LEO = $450,000 for four months? Fuel is <$50,000 of the cost.
During the seven day trial, they hired four more guys. Meanwhile, Staircase, Elwha, and Sol Duc, were closed all winter. An anomaly you say? Sol Duc has always closed in the winter... (GMP: Seasonal road access to Sol Duc would be retained, but access season could be adjusted depending on weather...) The Olympic HS side of the Elwha always closes with snow, often for months. I have never seen them plow whiskey bend either. Lake Crescent is totally maintained by WSDOT or the County.
A couple years ago I asked:
Me: Why can't the road crew save time and money by plowing the road only when it snows (or drifts), which is less than 50% of the total days? That is the way that most other road crews operate.
ONP: if I applied this concept to a receptionist answering the phones, sure I would be able to save allot of money, but it would be
incredibly hard to manage a program which only has staff on to answer the phone when the phone is going to ring.
Reality: With 7 people there are more than enough to spread the hours to clear the road when it needs it, and do other work other times.
The whole program is ridiculous, and their lame excuses just make it worse.
