Public meeting on Winter Operations, Mt. Rainier

I'll be driving up to Ashford for the meeting today at 400pm
Leaving my house in Sumner around 230ish.  share ride ?  I could haul 3 or 4 depending on which car I take. 

Robie, how did the Ashford meeting play out?

.geez can't even finish my glass of wine to wash down my stew!

Ok , I was the only user there and introduced myself as a Tacoma Mountaineer (Ski Committiee) which Ive been forever.
Basically the others present were the local Business people who depend upon the park for thier  livelihood.  Whittakers, Jasmer's  IMG etc. I felt this is who the presentation was originally oriented towards.
Supt.  Randy King and Deputy Supt were likeable enough.
Main reason this decision was reached  and I believe decided locally was "That they are short of both Qualified Operators of  snowplows and rotaries" . According to Randy King there is a hiring freeze in effect but snowplow and Rotary drivers are exempt. Even if hired tomorrow there would be a training period. "They are trying to hire qualified people now "
Most questions asked by local business owners were orientated towards keeping the park open 7 days a week . Pressed, Randy responded that hopefully it would only be this year
and then we could get back to 7 day a week operation.

My statements were
This puts a 40 day hole in my retirement strategy.
The winter recreationists have seen a reduction of access over the last 5 years ,this added more hence a lowered gate count  . This tuesday and wedesday closure will make it worse. creating a downhill slide in attendance and revenue along the Ashford corridor.

Some ideas
Mountaineers and other user groups including TAY bring full force to this issue but also explore ways to work with park to increase access .
Do write your representaives. Evidently Congressman Dave Richert is on the parks committee.
The deputy supt. present said "they hadn't that much mail on the issue"
I suggested that they have meetings in Seattle and Tacoma   

I have more but I need to cut short here .

One last item  which is positive but might cause confusion .The road to paradise will be opened on all holidays even if they fall  on Tuesday or Wed. Weather permittting.

Thanks for going and the report.

I did not go because it was a meeting to inform the public not to solicit feedback or advice from the public. Besides Regine and I went skiing at White Pass because the Park was closed. I know Randy K. got a call from Reichert's office after I wrote DR and before the meetings were announced. IMHE, inquiries from our elected representative rarely go unheeded; feds fail to pay attention to legislators at their peril.

I am not surprised the Park has not received much mail on the subject, since they did not announce their decision until after it was made, they did not have a period for people to comment, people don't write letters that much anymore; and who wants to send an email to an anonymous website manager or PR person.

I must say I am somewhat chagrined that this was not brought about by budget but simply poor management in failing to recruit either qualified operators or trainees in advance of the heavy snow season. The need for operators was fully known; it seems just not to have had enough priority to get attention before Park closure was inevitable.

I attended the public meeting in Enumclaw yesterday, December 12. Here’s a brief summary.

Before the meeting began Randy King, MRNP Supt., came over and introduced himself. A real nice genuine type individual. Randy has been the Deputy Supt. at Rainier since 2002. Randy stated the point of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for dialog between Park management and users. It was a very informal meeting, no power point show, or other nonsense.

I stated the purpose of my coming to the meeting was to address not only the two day Paradise road closure; but to address access issues in general (Sunrise, Mowich, Westside, etc...) Randy stated the main thrust of the two day road closure was due to budget issues. He sated the Park, along with almost all other agencies, were keeping a very tight rein on expenditures due to the unpredictable budgets concerning the fiscal cliff negotiations. To open the Paradise road, the Park needs two plow crews, or hefty overtime. One crew to start at 5AM and open the road, another to keep it open so folks can get back down. This also entails having LEOS’s and rangers on duty; both early and late. Essentially the choice was made to close the road two days a week, in order to preserve funding to be able to keep it open the five days, and also to ensure the Park had money to keep other aspects going in case of severe budget cuts resulting from the fiscal cliff. Randy stated it was not his intention to make this permanent; he hopes to restore access 7 days a week next in the future. I was very pleased to hear this. Randy also seems tuned into the fact that the closure could impact summit climbs and such; but had to make a decision to avoid lesser evils. Randy stated they are also short two rotary plow operators due to a death of one crew member this summer and another quitting or retiring (can’t remember which). He did state they are actively trying to hire at least one more plow operator. Randy said the Park currently has 20 other positions they are not filling.

I was curious as to why the Park was going to close the road, yet have interpretive Rangers on duty at Longmire on the closure days. The Deputy Supt. addressed this saying that the local Ashford/Elbe business did not want the Park completely closed on any days; so props to the Park for listening to those business.

Randy also said they are doing a better job of posting road open/closed status on twitter feeds; to let the public know what they can expect. Their goal is to have that info posted prior to 6AM each day.
The Park’s planner also detailed some pretty cool things they are working on with regards to the Park’s expansion on the north side, and Carbon River access.

All in all, I thought it was a good meeting. While I’m personally not in favor of 5 day access; I can certainly understand the Parks budget issues and I’m hopeful this current 2 day closure is as said, a temporary thing.

Thanks for attending, voicing the ski community's concerns, and reporting back.  Given the constraints they are working under it seems a reasonable compromise and, hopefully, a short-term measure.  I know a few folks that work at the park - believe me, they are quite short-handed and scrapping the budget barrel bottom. 

I must say I am somewhat chagrined that this was not brought about by budget but simply poor management in failing to recruit either qualified operators or trainees in advance of the heavy snow season.  The need for operators was fully known; it seems just not to have had enough priority to get attention before Park closure was inevitable. 

I wouldn't worry much about the cha-cha-grin, Andy.  The Park Service will almost certainly foxtrot out the budget excuse at the next dance, when they close Paradise Mondays through Thursdays all winter like Hurricane Ridge.  Then, after a year or two for the peasants to calm down, 'safety' will force everyone to ride mandatory shuttles that only run on those weekends with no new snow and no Winter Storm Watch.  Future day-trippers and campers might have to pay $100/day for monitoring (plus surgical fees) of their required tracking device implants.  The rangers could then spend most of their time in a fortified bunker at Tahoma Woods joysticking the park's fleet of surveillance and enforcement drones...

Sincere thanks to those who attended and reported on these meetings!  The brass shows up with a brand-new lame excuse, expressing hopes their closure is only for this winter, and we're supposed to forget history?  NPS management's actions speak louder than words, eh?  The twenty years of declining winter visitation, the ever-more frequent closures and ever-slower openings of Paradise, the attempted closure for the winter of 2009 and the six-month Big Lie closure of 2007, the ongoing BS of excluding the taxpayers from the Westside Road and Sunrise...  None of these seem very believable as shortfalls of the secret budget or being caused by 'critical vacancies', no matter how personable or likable the suits.  This history does appear consistent with an agenda of maximizing management convenience by minimizing public access.  

Looking on the bright side, mere incompetence seems to be a step up compared to the three previous MRNP superintendents, all of whom could have (and should have, IMO) served jail time.  More on that later.