NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Wednesday, April 5, 2000

ALMANAC

On this date in 1856, Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee 
Institute and America's foremost black leader of the early 20th 
century, was born in slavery on a tobacco farm in Franklin County, 
Virginia.  Booker T. Washington National Monument preserves the site.

INCIDENTS

99-695 - San Juan NHS (PR) - Follow-up: Ship Grounding

As was noted in a prior Morning Report, the 605-foot Russian freighter 
Sergo Zakariadze was finally refloated and removed from the park's 
breakwater at the mouth of San Juan Harbor on March 29th. The 
freighter ran aground on the breakwater on November 18, 1999 when the 
ship's steering gear failed in heavy seas caused by the passage of 
Hurricane Lenny. The vessel was carrying 17,000 tons of cement dust in 
below-deck cargo holds, and also had about 200,000 gallons of fuel 
oil, lubricants and waste oil on board. Twenty-eight federal, 
commonwealth and private organizations responded to the grounding. No 
pollution occurred during the removal operation. The ship has been 
towed to the port of Mayaguez in Puerto Rico, and will eventually be 
towed to Mexico, where it will be scrapped. A damage assessment team 
has been mobilized to conduct an underwater survey and determine the 
extent of damage to the breakwater. [Mark Hardgrove, Deputy 
Superintendent, SAJU, 4/4]

00-123 - Big Cypress NP (FL) - Disorderly Conduct; Weapon Drawn

On April 2nd, rangers were contacted by a resident of Looneyville, 
which is located within the park. A man in a white Cadillac had driven 
through the area that morning and had made belligerent comments toward 
another resident. The caller also identified the driver of the 
Cadillac as having been in Looneyville in March, at which time he'd 
been shooting a weapon and had been "extremely confrontational and 
belligerent." Rangers Eduardo Echeverria, Tom Berg and Dane Tantay and 
two state game officers contacted the two occupants of the Cadillac, 
who were fishing west of Fisher camp. Echeverria approached one of the 
two men, later identified as L.F. L.F. put his fishing pole 
down as Echeverria approached; as he turned toward the ranger, 
Echeverria saw that he had a weapon holstered on his right side. 
Echeverria ordered him not to touch it, but L.F. placed his right 
hand on the gun and used his left hand to release the safety latch on 
the black holster. Echeverria again ordered him not to touch the 
weapon, but L.F. ignored him and drew it out. Echeverria grabbed the 
gun - a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol - and pulled it away from 
L.F.. It had one round in its chamber and another eight in its 
magazine. L.F. said that he'd only brought he gun to defend himself 
"in case I get shot at because some of these people are wild out 
here." L.F. was arrested for disorderly conduct and interfering with 
an agency function. Further investigation led to the discovery that 
L.F. had stopped two other men earlier that day and had told them 
that he'd hunted in the area for years, that no one would stop him 
from doing so, and "that if anyone such as a law enforcement officer 
tried, he would be looking at the wrong end of L.F.'s pistol." 
[Eduardo Echeverria, PR, BICY, 4/4]

CULTURAL/NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Uniform Program Update - Priorities have been established for filling 
more than 500 uniform shirt backorders. R&R Uniforms will work with 
its subcontractor to first fill orders for short-sleeve shirts. Once 
the subcontractor's production line gets back up to speed, the company 
will begin making long-sleeve shirts. Orders will be filled in the 
sequence that they were received at R&R. Most of these backorders 
should be taken care of by the end of May. The head of customer 
service at R&R has moved on to another job, but R&R has already filled 
the position with an employee who's been in the customer service 
department for a number of years. There should be very little 
transition time due to her background with the company. [Ken Mabery, 
RAD/WASO]

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Blue Ridge Parkway (NC/TN - Superintendent Gary Everhardt, 65, has 
announced that he will retire on May 3rd, ending a 43-year-career with 
the Service. Everhardt began as a civil engineer trainee at Blue Ridge 
Parkway, then went to Southeast Region headquarters to work in the 
maintenance and engineering division. In 1965, he became a regional 
engineer and chief of maintenance in Santa Fe. Four years later, he 
became assistant superintendent of Yellowstone, then was named 
superintendent of Grand Teton in 1971. Everhardt became director of 
the NPS in 1975 following Ron Walker's departure, then transferred to 
the parkway in 1977. Plans for the retirement dinner are pending. 

FOOTNOTE

This new section of the Morning Report will appear intermittently and 
be employed to address questions or issues raised by readers and 
sundry other editorial matters. 

A reader has asked about the fate of the second man in the ARPA 
incident reported by Death Valley NP in the April 3rd Morning Report. 
The incident summary reported on the conviction of Dennis Bacoch and 
the penalties assessed by the court, but didn't go into what happened 
to Wright Jones, who was with Bacoch when the two were stopped by 
rangers. Special agent Eric Inman advises that Bacoch took all the 
blame for the trip and for collecting the artifacts and said that 
Jones did not collect anything. Following consultation with the 
assistant U.S. attorney, the park decided not to charge Jones.

Jere Krakow, superintendent of the Long Distance Trails Office in Salt 
Lake City, has added a footnote to the April 3rd "Almanac" entry on 
the Pony Express, which noted that it passed through Fort Laramie NHS 
in Wyoming. He adds that the Pony Express route also passes through 
Scotts Bluff NM and that the trail is commemorated as the Pony Express 
National Historic Trail - one of 20 trails in the national trails 
system, administered by his office.

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Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the 
cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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