Public meeting on Winter Operations, Mt. Rainier

The occasions when the NPS supposedly solicits public input are all for show, a legal hoop they must jump through.  Last year Great Smoky Mountains National Park instituted a new fee for backcountry camping, despite more than 90% of the public comments in opposition.  As a result, there seems to be a growing revolt against the NPS back east:

www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2013/02/gr...backcountry-fee22849

... Could NPS be run more efficiently? Yes, as could most gov't agencies. However coming out of this meeting I am hopeful for some positive changes at MRNP. For right now I am giving Randy King the benefit of the doubt.

After our February streak of nine out of ten days closed, one of the few attendees at these meetings no longer believes the fedspeak:

"I attended the public meeting in Enumclaw with Randy King. After the meeting I posted on this site that for the time being I would give Randy the benefit of the doubt; based on the closures of late that benefit has been recinded.

I sincerely hope Mr. King has a good explanation for this closure, although my gut feeling now is he's just another beaurocrat hell bent of screwing the public out of access of a resource he is paid to manage."

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...x.php?topic=27598.25

...[Supt.] Randy [King] 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.

Wednesday, March 6th was a scheduled closed day, yet a plow was visible on webcam at the Paradise lot about 7am plowing about one inch of new snow that fell overnight.  Telemetry was buggered, but it looks like the plow left and about eight inches more snow accumulated during the day.  Doesn't seem a very wise allocation of supposedly scarce resources...

On Thursday, March 7th, a 7:00 am tweet "projected' a noon opening.  A follow-up tweet after noon said the road would remain closed due to "sloughing", prompting a reply tweet from Win Whittaker:  "Really?  That's a new one..."  As Robie posted on another thread:  "Pathetic."

On Friday, March 8th, a 7:42 am tweet "projected' a ten o'clock opening.  The cam showed visitor vehicles at Paradise about nine, but the tweet announcing the road opening was not posted until eleven-thirty, despite another sarcastic reply from Whittaker-land at nine-thirty.

Regarding "Whittaker-land"...is that to say they are in with the NPS? Whats with the tweets then? Can you elaborate?

Whittaker-land meaning Ashford.
I was at the meeting in Ashford and None of the businesses including Whittakers there were happy about the Road closures. The tweets coming from Ashford emphasize that fact. Pretty sure that Gary Vogt would agree.
As this road closures and delayed/ postponed openings grinds on, people will change or harden their opinions.

Whittaker-land meaning Ashford.
I was at the meeting in Ashford and None of the businesses including Whittakers there were happy about the Road closures. The tweets coming from Ashford emphasize that fact. Pretty sure that Gary Vogt would agree.
As this road closures and delayed/ postponed openings grinds on, people will change or harden their opinions.

In my scientific survey (living just outside the park), I suspect past and present closures and erratic openings are subtly and insidiously undermining the sustainability of the Ashford community, including the  Whittaker non-climbing businesses. 

The Tues-Wed closure, the propensity to close at any excuse on Monday and Thursday, legitimate closures for poor weather and avalanche danger, and unpredictable, often late, opening times  amount to a major policy change with ramification on diverse sectors of the public from resident amenity migrants to visitors from Florida.

The present stealth policy change (no prior discussion with stakeholders) relies on heavy visitation during nice weather weekends to mask the effects of  erratic and unpredictable visitation on businesses and workers in the community and park user-day statistics. 

Businesses make their annual profits primarily on a few weekends of the year (holidays and summer weekends); but their sustainability and meeting their fixed operating costs requires some sort of regular income throughout the year.  Park management is eroding the steady flow of visitors to the park and promoting episodic visitation (may be good for park employees in the short term but bad for the park and community in the long term).