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Subject: Park Ops Quarterly Update - 1
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Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 10:58:06 -0400
QUARTERLY PARK OPERATIONS UPDATE
THIRD QUARTER, FY98: APRIL 1 - JUNE 30, 1998
August 8, 1998 98-01
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 Associate Director, Park Operations and Education
2.0 Concessions
3.0 Interpretation
4.0 Facilities Management
5.0 Harpers Ferry Center
6.0 Job Corps
7.0 Risk Management
8.0 Public Health Service
9.0 Appalachian Trail
10.0 Ranger Activities
11.0 Calendar
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1.0 ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, PARK OPERATIONS AND EDUCATION
This is the first edition of a new quarterly summary of what's going on
in Park Operations and Education. It is being sent to the readers of
the Morning Report to assure the widest possible dissemination among
those of you who do the field work of the National Park Service.
Although there are many sources of information on actions going on here
in WASO in the divisions within park operations, including both bulletin
boards and electronic newsletters, field folks still frequently ask me
about what's going on in Washington. I suspect that's because all of
you are hard pressed and often don't have the time to read much beyond
your own professional specialties. But everything in operations is
interrelated, and it's often important for a ranger to know what's going
on in facility management or for a safety specialist to be up to speed
on activities in public health.
The solution seems to be a comprehensive, concise summary of on-going
actions. This quarterly status report is meant to achieve that end.
Since the division chiefs all have to prepare these reports for me every
three months, it makes sense to extract the core information and pass it
on to you. Yes, there's a lot of info, but you'll only be seeing it
four times a year. If it strikes you as too much or insufficiently
relevant to your work, you're free to pitch it. I think you'll find it
worth your while, though, to at least scan each issue quickly.
It's no secret that downsizing has dramatically increased workloads and
stress levels everywhere in the NPS. As a former superintendent, I both
understand and sympathize with the problems you face - more work, fewer
people, radically (at times) different ways of doing business. But I
also ask you to be sensitive to the fact that this is also a reality in
the regions, in the support offices, and in Washington. WASO operations
has suffered a staffing cut of over 50% in the last five years; at the
same time, Congress and the Administration are asking us to do much more
and you are seeking more support. This situation has proved very
challenging for my staff. I ask that you keep this in mind and
understand why you can't always get through on the phone or get quick
answers to questions.
If you have any ideas on how to make this report work better for you,
please send them on to Bill Halainen, who is editing this publication.
Subsequent editions will be leaner than this first transmittal, as we're
still trying to sort out what to put out, so have erred on the side of
inclusion.
In case nobody's told you lately, you're all doing a pretty outstanding
job in keeping the parks up and running, meeting the high standards
we've set for ourselves over the years, protecting often irreplaceable
resources, and serving the ever-growing visiting public.
Maureen Finnerty
Associate Director
Park Operations and Education
2.0 CONCESSIONS DIVISION
2.1 Director's Orders: A draft of DO #48 went to the policy office and
solicitor for formal review in March.
2.2 Legislation: Participated in development of the section on concessions
in the omnibus parks legislation that is currently before Congress.
2.3 Concessions Contracting: Activities for the quarter include:
o Completed the draft manual, revised contract language, and sale/
transfer procedures, which are to be disseminated for comment in
the late summer or fall.
o Continued efforts to reduce the contracting backlog; considerable
progress has been made.
o Held a meeting with parks and SO concessions offices on the
National Park Concessions, Inc., renewal process. NPCI operates
concessions at MEVE, BLRI, ISRO, BIBE and OLYM. The master
contract is currently managed by WASO; when it expires in about
four years, five or more separate contracts will be issued, to be
managed by the parks. A project timetable and responsibilities
were established.
2.4 Financial Programs: Activities for the quarter include:
o Revised the fee determination system for review by the team and by
Arthur Anderson consulting firm.
o Continued work on revisions to the annual financial report.
Formulation of a new draft report is underway.
o Completed an initial estimate of concession improvement needs and
funding. A field survey will take place in September.
o Completed portions of a financial procedures manual. A complete
draft will be ready for review pending completion of work on the
annual financial report and fees.
2.5 Operational Programs: Activities for the quarter include:
o Continued work on revisions to the basic evaluation program
manual. Public review of the basic program and several revised
standards will occur in the late summer or fall.
o Continued work on revisions to the rate approval program, which
are now largely completed. They will be out for review in the
late summer or fall.
o Tested the revised risk management program in the field. An
analysis of results is underway.
o Met with a private sector committee on a review and update of NPS
handicraft policies and procedures. A meeting is to be held with
the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Revisions to the program are
being drafted for inclusion in the operations manual.
o Met with NPS minority contracting staff and a contractor on
creation of a minority hiring program.
2.6 Business and Commercial Park Uses: Activities for the quarter include:
o Reviewed the 1997 incidental business permit program. A report
with recommendations on the program is forthcoming.
o Continued the on-going meetings of a concession-cooperating
association committee to explore cooperative efforts and ways of
reducing friction. Representatives from the NPS and National Park
Hospitality Association participated on panels at the CNPCA annual
meeting in March.
2.7 Concession Information Systems: Activities for the quarter include:
o Developed new contracting, finance and operations databases. Some
data is now available.
2.8 Concession Careers: Activities for the quarter include:
o Began implementing recommendations made by the concession careers
task force. A report was circulated to the field in March; a
presentation to the director is pending.
o Developed a draft concession training strategy, now under
consideration by Employee Development.
2.9 Concession Environmental Program: Activities for the quarter include:
o Participated with Facility Management and Interpretation on joint
environment initiatives and April workshop and participated in the
DOI/DOE energy workshop in June.
o Drafted environmental standards for concessioner evaluations;
arranged concessioner representation in April and June workshops.
3.0 INTERPRETATION AND EDUCATION DIVISION
3.1 Director's Orders: DO #32 has been completed and signed by Director
Stanton. The resource manual for this DO has been finished and will be
sent to an editor for review.
3.2 Interpretation: Activities for the quarter included the following:
o Conducted a workshop on "Connecting People to Parks in the 21st
Century," which focused on ways in which interpretation and
education could evolve to best meet the missions of resource
preservation and visitor enjoyment in the coming century. Ideas
and suggestions from the session are now being compiled and will
be used to create a five-year work plan for interpretation and
education. Major areas of interest were the NPS image, the
messages the service is delivering to the public, the NPS as an
agent of change in society, the demand for inter-disciplinary
thinking and work, the importance of the audience, the need for a
competent interpretive work force, and program evaluation. The
plan will be disseminated for wide review.
o Participated in interpretive leadership workshops in SER, IMR and
MWR, focusing on interpretive development program, comprehensive
interpretive plans, and media programs.
o Participated in the NPS historians workshop and gave a
presentation on interpretive competencies and curriculum and ways
in which historians and interpreters can better assist each other.
o Held an interpretive curriculum coordinators/certifiers workshop
which reviewed and updated the current curriculum and
certification process and trained 25 new certifiers.
o Held a historic weapons certification course in Oklahoma, training
50 employees.
o Worked on comprehensive interpretive plans for three parks.
3.3 ParkNet Support: Activities for the quarter included the following:
o Trained 27 NPS staff and cooperators form the Pacific Island
cluster on development of home pages.
o Conducted an assessment of use of ParkNet, which revealed:
* that there are an average of 757,085 hits daily;
* that there are an average of 951,191 hits on weekend days;
* that there were 1,065,522 hits on the peak day so far (May
6th); and
* that the ten most accessed web pages on the net are 1) the
NPS place on the web's main page, 2) Alcatraz, 3) Yosemite
NP, 4) the "Visit Your National Parks" page, 5) Hawaii
Volcanoes NP, 6) Great Smoky Mountains NP, 7) Rocky Mountain
NP, 8) Korean War Veterans' Memorial, 9) Yosemite NP
camping, and 10) the special resource study for the
Underground Railroad.
o Converted Future Projects data to the Project Management
Information System (PMIS).
3.4 Servicewide Education: Activities for the quarter include:
o Drafted an environmental leadership strategy for Park Operations
and Education. The work group consisted of representatives from
Facility Management, Concessions and Interpretation. The next
task will be to expand the document to include all NPS divisions
and offices.
o Participated in the annual National Science Teachers Association
meeting; presented a full-day teacher workshop and tour, a seminar
and an exhibit for the 10,000 teachers who attended.
o Forwarded the draft script for a CD-ROM on fire management and
education to a review group. Production should begin later this
summer.
o Completed the 1997 "Parks as Classrooms" report and will transmit
to the field in August.
o Toni Dufficy from Everglades NP has begun a one-year detail at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; goals of the detail are to
improve science literacy and to promote increased communication
and sharing of resources between NASA and the NPS. She can be
reached via the Internet at Toni_Dufficy@nps.gov.
3.5 Cooperating Associations: Activities for the quarter include:
o Completed the annual cooperating association report for 1997,
which revealed that gross sales for the 64 associations was $89
million and that donations to the service for interpretation,
education and research totaled $19 million.
4.0 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DIVISION
4.1 Director's Orders: The division is responsible for revising eight
guidelines and converting them to DOs. Their status, as of early July,
was as follows. The name of the person responsible for the DO appears
in parentheses.
o DO #15, Telecommunications (Frank Weed): Target completion date of
December, 1998.
o DO #36, Park Housing (Donna Compton): Completed in June.
Currently out for field review. Signature by director anticipated
in September.
o DO #40, Dam Safety (Charles Karpowicz): Scheduled for completion
this summer.
o DO #52, Traffic Signs (Mark Hartsoe): Due in December.
o DO #55, Hazard/Solid Waste Management (Shawn Norton): Due in
December.
o DO #65, Blasting (Jim McCarthy): Scheduled for completion this
summer.
o DO #68, Special Populations (Dave Park): Due in December.
o DO #81: Maintenance Management (Tim Harvey): Due in December.
4.2 Accessibility Management: Activities for the quarter included the
following:
o Worked with U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers
Compliance Board to develop standards for outdoor recreation.
Staff served on two working groups that reviewed the final draft
of the proposed rules; attended a meeting of the regulatory-
negotiating committee to work on standards for picnic areas,
camping areas and trails; and convened a meeting of 40 NPS, BLM,
BOR and FWS design professionals to review and comment on
recommendations.
o Met with regional, DSC and HFC accessibility coordinators to
develop means for assessing the status of access issues in the NPS
and develop plans for dealing with them.
o Assisted in presenting a universal design course via video
conference to 50 NPS architects and designers.
o Worked to resolve disability rights complaints filed against the
NPS at five parks.
o Provided consultation to numerous parks, offices and NPS
organizations on access issues.
4.3 Dams: Activities for the quarter included the following:
o Completed NPS dam safety implementation plan and delivered to
Bureau of Reclamation.
o Initiated or completed corrective action on 14 structures; to
date, corrective actions have been completed at 160 dams, and
another 143 have been deactivated.
o Requested $1 million in line item construction funding for dams
for FY99 ($2 million received in FY98).
o Provided professional engineering evaluations of NPS structures in
parks and design and construction services for needed repairs or
deactivations.