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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Thursday, January 7, 2010 INCIDENTS Homestead National Monument of America Water Leak Damages Park Collection The park is in the process of recovering from a water leak in the Heritage Center, which serves as the monument's main visitor facility and houses over 50,000 museum collection items. On the evening of Friday, January 1st, park staff were alerted to a problem in the building and responded immediately. Superintendent Mark Engler arrived first and heard water. When he went to the stairs, he saw a cascading curtain of water, and about an inch of standing water in areas of the museum's lower level. In order to stop the flowing water, Engler had to go outside, clear snow off the building's manhole cover, and turn off water to the entire building. Nineteen employees and volunteers worked until midnight to assess damage and preserve any items that may have been damaged by the water. With help from preservation experts from both Kansas City and Midwest Regional Office, the staff is currently working to restore the 255 books that had water damage and the 101 wood objects that had been touched by water. [Merrith Baughman, Chief Ranger] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS: Great Smoky Mountains NP - The Twin Creeks Science and Education Center at Great Smoky Mountains National Park has just received certification at the gold level under the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. NPS Law Enforcement Training Center - The recipients of the 2009 Field Training Ranger and Field Training Lead of the Year Awards have been announced. US Park Police - Officer James Matarese has just retired from the United States Park Police. Jim had a varied career with the Park Police. but made his greatest contributions in the area of K9 service. Photo. To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter): NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index Non-NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/ NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504 * * * * * Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov). --- ### --- |