NPS Morning Report - Tuesday, December 11, 2001

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT



To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2001

*** NOTICE ***

Due to the unfortunate conjunction of two events last week, the Morning
Report has not generally been available to readers since Wednesday, December
5th. On that date, dissemination of the Morning Report shifted from cc:Mail
to the National Park Service's web page; at or about the same time, a court
order stemming from a wholly unrelated court case led to the shutdown of all
DOI Internet connections. Efforts have been underway since that time to try
and figure out a way to at least get the Morning Report posted at its home
page (http://www.nps.gov/morningreport]. We regret the interruption in
Morning Report dissemination, but some times serendipity happens.

INCIDENTS

01-636 - Blue Ridge Parkway (NC/VA) - Homicide Suspect Apprehended

Resource management specialist Jim Basinger happened upon a man walking
along a remote section of the parkway on the afternoon of December 6th. He
felt that there was something unusual about him and summoned a law
enforcement ranger. Due to the lengthy response time, Basinger drove back to
the area and began talking with the man from his vehicle. The man -
subsequently identified as J.G. of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, a
small community adjacent to the park - told Basinger that he'd killed
someone, and that he intended to kill himself. Basinger determined that
J.G. had an edged weapon in his possession, so left the area. A
Wintergreen PD officer was first on the scene and took J.G. into
custody without incident. Investigators determined that J.G.'s
grandmother had been killed in her home with a blunt instrument; they also
determined that J.G. may have been involved in car clouts in the
area. A multi-agency investigation is underway. The case ranger is DR Bruce
Bytnar. [John Garrison, Protection Specialist, BLRI, 12/7]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Fee Program Update - There have been a number of recent developments in the
national fee program:

• The FY 02 appropriations bill language was modified to extend the
recreational fee demo program

fee collection authority to September 30, 2004, and the expenditure of
recreational fee revenue

until September 30, 2007. Congress also lifted the cap on the number of
recreational fee

demonstration projects. The Washington Office is planning to convert all fee
collection sites to

recreational fee demo projects in the near future. Additional guidance will
be sent out to regions

and parks shortly.

• WASO staff are currently working on three congressional reports - the
first is a comprehensive

interagency report on the results of the recreational fee demo program, the
second is the annual

interagency report, and the third is a specific NPS report on cost of
collection that specifically

identifies parks that spent more than 20% of revenue on collection costs.
These reports are all

due to the Hill in the next couple of months. Congressional oversight
hearings on the program will

likely be held in February or March. There's also a permanent legislative
bill developed by all four

participating agencies that has not yet cleared OMB yet.

• GAO recently submitted its draft audit report on the fee program. All
agencies provided comments

on GAO's findings. The final report should be officially transmitted to
Congress in the near future.

GAO found that the fee program in general has been successful, but concluded
that improvements

could be made in the following areas - establishing more consistent
evaluation criteria,

experimenting with more innovations and collaborative arrangements with
other agencies and

entities, clearing up visitor confusion about user and entrance fees, and
ensuring that fee

revenue is being spent on highest priorities.

• A new request for proposals (RFP) is being developed for the NPS
reservation service contract. The

current contract expires in December of 2002. A work group has been
researching information

and getting feedback from the field on new/revised requirements. A meeting
to solicit feedback on the program was held in Washington in November that
was attended by representatives from all

parks on the system.

• Sally Lewis from Gulf Islands NS and Joe McGown from Mammoth Cave NP have
received star

awards for their outstanding contributions in assisting the national fee
program office with

coordination and oversight of the national reservation service this past
year. Sheri Ogden from

Yosemite NP was given an on-the-spot award for helping with the annual
revision and coordination of the system brochure.

• Washington Office staff are working with McKinsey and Company to develop
an executive

summary of the findings of the fee study conducted last spring. The primary
recommendations

include the following - improving consistency in setting price points for
entrance fees for similar

types of parks, instituting a consistent entrance fee package of activities,
revising commercial

tour fee schedules to more closely align with entrance fee rates,
standardizing length of stay rules

for similar kinds of parks, reexamining and possibly standardizing
allocation formulas for all fee

authorities, and evaluating parks that do not charge fees for possible
inclusion in the fee program, as appropriate. The next steps for
implementation and policy development are being planned.

• The regional fee program managers recently met in Washington to review all
cost of collection

projects for FY 2002. This meeting was conducted to eliminate duplicate
reviews of projects by

regions and by Washington in order to improve the timeliness of approvals
and also to improve

consistency in reviews.

• The new PMIS version 4 was instituted on December 3rd. This new version of
PMIS requires parks to prioritize projects. This was done in response to OMB
and GAO concerns.

• The comprehensive call was issued on December 3rd and will now include all
recreation fee

projects (including cost of collection) and National Park Pass projects for
FY 2002 - 2004. Additional guidance will be issued in the near future. FY
2002 cost of collection guidance was issued in

October 2001.

• The Veterans Day weekend fee waiver appears to have been a success. Many
parks have

submitted comments about positive visitor reactions and collaborative
efforts; these were shared

with the directorate and the secretariat.

• The Washington Office will soon be issuing a revised SOP on procedures for
ordering new National

Park Passes, holograms, etc. The new image will be of Arches NP. In FY 2001,
about $14 million in

National Park Pass revenue was collected. This translates to about 280,000
passes.

Lastly, a sad note: Long-time Glacier NP fee program manager Jerry Nelson
passed away from cancer on November 28th. Jerry will be remembered for his
many contributions to the NPS fee program, particularly pertaining to
accountability. He was one of the cornerstones of the fee program and will
be greatly missed. [Jane Moore, RAD/WASO]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

NPS Law Enforcement Training Center (GA) - The center is looking for people
interested in helping train protection rangers in the new national park
ranger integrated training program. Due to the anticipated increase in the
number of classes for this program, the center is seeking a larger cadre of
instructors. These NPS-specific classes have been integrated into the basic
law enforcement program and compliment the training that rangers receive
from the other training divisions at FLETC. Current NPRI course subject
areas are:

History and mission of the NPS The NPS uniform

Resource law enforcement Jurisdiction and authority

The future of the NPS Interpretation and resource education

Mental preparation for armed confrontation Legislative affairs

NPS tort claim investigations 36 CFR and 36 CFR lab

SAR/ICS/situational awareness Extremist groups on public lands

Personnel administration Wilderness

Ranger competencies and training Risk management

Wildland and structural fire WASO update

Retirement planning DO-9/RM-9

NTSA DUI detection/SFST certification (wet labs) Graduation speakers

If you're interested and would like more information about the program and
courses, please contact Don Usher at 912-267-3190 or email him at
don_usher@nps.gov. [Wiley Golden, NPS-LETC]

* * * * *

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

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