RANGER ACTIVITIES DIVISION
                           MORNING REPORT

Attention: Directorate
           Regional and Park Chief Rangers, USPP, BIFC, FLETC
           CC: RAD Information Net

Day/date:  Tuesday, December 12, 1989

INCIDENTS

89-351 - Everglades (Florida) - Death of Employee

On December 9th, seasonal ranger Rick Dunlap, 35, died of bilateral
pneumonia and cardio-pulmonary failure while at the Homestead Hospital. A
native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Dunlap had worked seasonally at Dinosaur
and Ozark River before coming to the Everglades this winter. (Telephone
report from Steve Smith, RAD/SERO).

89-352 - Big Bend (Texas) - Search in Progress

On the afternoon of the 10th, a 16-year-old male became separated from his
party while backpacking in the park's backcountry with a commercial
outfitter. The boy is a known diabetic who was treated for low blood sugar
on the day that he became lost. An unsuccessful hasty search was conducted
by Big Bend rangers on the night of the 10th; a full-scale search employing
a helicopter was begun yesterday morning. (CompuServe report from Phil
Young, RAD/SWRO).

OFFICE NOTES

1) On December 8th, the NPS introduced "Menu Mail" on CompuServe in order to
provide you with a user-friendly service for getting around in InfoPlex, the
message exchange center. As most of you have already discovered, there were
more than a few glitches in that system. Carl Zaner, the CompuServe SYSOP
here in WASO, says that CompuServe had assured the NPS that Menu Mail had
been fully tested and found to be completely free of gremlins. Since it
obviously wasn't, Carl has re—rigged the opening menu to give you the option
of using either the old InfoPlex electronic mail and file transfer service
(option 1 under basic services) or the Menu Mail service (option 2).
InfoPlex still works as it used to, so we heartily recommend the selection
of option 1 when you sign on.

2) On October 4th, the Department issued Personnel Management Bulletin No.
89-166 (831) which provided further guidance for the completion and
submission of claims for 20-year retirement. A key passage of that PMB
states the following: "The Department is allowing servicing personnel
offices to accept evidence to substantiate an acceptable request within a
reasonable period of time after the September 30, 1989 deadline. Initially,
3 months was considered to be a reasonable time to allow individuals to
submit evidence to substantiate their request; however, the Department is
now establishing 6 months as the reasonable time frame, i.e. March 31, 1990.
Bureau personnel offices are allowed the latitude to extend this reasonable
time frame in extenuating circumstances. Extenuating circumstances will be
determined by bureau personnel offices in order to provide consistency
within the bureau. Therefore servicing personnel offices are to consult
bureau personnel offices directly as the need arises."

3) Washington's under another winter storm warning, so you may again find
that there'll be substantially reduced staffing in WASO by afternoon. In
order to understand why we tend to shut down every time more than a few
flakes fall, you first need to realize that 1) the metro DC highway system
now has far more traffic on it each day than it was designed to carry, 2)
Southerners (DC is below the Mason-Dixon line) are not used to driving in
snow, and 3) all-weather or snow tires are not standard equipment on most
vehicles hereabouts. The last time we had a serious snow storm, the city
went into instant gridlock and didn't unsnarl itself for about ten hours.
People who lived 15 miles from work took as long as 8 hours to get home. So
that's why we bail out in storms that would amount to moderate snowfalls in
Yellowstone or Mount Rainier or Denali......

STAFF STATUS

Loach at ARPA session at FLETC, Kreis on leave.

Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities

Telephone:  FTS 343-4874/6039 or 202-343-4874/6039
Telefax:    FTS 343-5977 or 202-343-5977
CompuServe: WASO-RANGER
SEAdog:     1/650 (Phone:343-6014; BAUD:2400)