Author:  Bill Halainen at NP-DEWA
Date:    3/26/96  1:30 PM
Priority: Normal
Subject: NPS Morning Report - 3/26/96
------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
     
     
                       NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                          MORNING REPORT
     
To:            All National Park Service Areas and Offices
     
From:          Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
     
Day/Date:      Thursday, April 4, 1996
     
Broadcast:     By 1000 ET
     
                          *** NOTICE ***
     
The Department of Interior has not yet received guidance from the White House 
on lowering flags to half staff for Secretary Brown.  They will advise us as 
soon as they are notified.  A separate notice will be sent out via the 
Morning Report network as soon as we hear from them.
     
INCIDENTS
     
94-635 - Great Smokies (North Carolina/Tennessee) - Follow-up on Homicide
     
Around 8 p.m. on November 6, 1994, visitors reported a vehicle over the 
embankment at a popular overlook on the Gatlinburg bypass.  Responding 
rangers found a late model Jeep Cherokee and one male occupant, K.J.L.,
33, of Sevierville, Tennessee, who was pronounced dead upon arrival 
at the University of Tennessee Hospital in Knoxville.  The ensuing 
investigation was headed by park criminal investigator Bill Acree and 
included agents and officers from the FBI, Sevierville police department, 
Sevier County sheriff's office, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the 
district attorney general's office.  Investigators identified B.R., 26, 
also of Sevierville, as the primary suspect; he was arrested within 24 hours 
of the incident and charged with first degree murder.  S.L., the 
victim's wife, was subsequently indicted by a grand jury on the same charge. 
Both suspects were released on bond.  B.R. fled to Mexico about two weeks 
before the trial was to begin, but was arrested while trying to reenter the 
United States in Miami.  Investigators determined that S.L. had 
assisted B.R. by providing him with money.  Both were held without bond. Under 
a plea agreement, B.R. and K.J.L. agreed to minimum sentences of 25 years and 
forfeiture of all appeal rights; K.J.L. also agreed to surrender custody of 
her children.  Acree and rangers Helen McNutt and Jerry Grubb testified at 
the trial.  [Jason Houck, CR, GRSM] 
     
96-131 - Wupatki (Arizona) - ARPA Case
     
On February 17th, a group of eight juveniles, members of the Youth Hockey 
Association from Ontario, California, entered a closed area and vandalized a 
pueblo site near the main ruins at Wupatki.  Visitors saw them pull stones 
from the walls and toss them over a 30-foot drop and advised rangers. 
Structural damage to the site was extensive.  Flagstaff Area archeologist 
Jeri DeYoung estimated the archeological value and the cost of restoration 
and repair to be in excess of $3,000.  With the assistance of the U.S. 
attorney's office in Phoenix, an agreement was reached with the parents and 
the hockey association which includes full payment of the cost of the 
archeological assessment and the restoration and repair of the site, and 
mandates a trip back to Wupatki for the juveniles to assist in the repair and 
stabilization work.  Criminal charges will be dropped.  [Bill Hudson, DR, 
WUPA]
     
96-132 - Fort McHenry (Maryland) - Special Event
     
Rangers from Fort McHenry and Hampton provided support and assistance to the 
Secret Service and local agencies when President Clinton landed by helicopter 
in the park on April 2nd.  The President was in Baltimore to pitch the first 
ball at the Oriole's opening day game.  Members of the House and Senate and 
other state and local officials greeted President Clinton when he arrived. 
There were no incidents.  [Craig Davis, Acting Superintendent, FOMC]
     
96-133 - Guadalupe Mountains (Texas) - Assist; Vehicle Fire
     
The county sheriff's office notified the park of a vehicle fire on a state 
highway about 17 miles east of the park on April 2nd.  The park responded 
with structural and wildland fire engines.  The vehicle, a Suzuki Samurai, 
was fully engulfed in flame when the engines arrived on scene.  The car fire 
and two small associated wildland fires were put out.  The vehicle was being 
towed by a motorhome when it caught on fire.  The driver, a vacationing 
California Department of Forestry fire captain, had the presence of mind to 
detach the car from the motorhome, thereby saving the latter.  The cause of 
the blaze is unknown.  [Bruce Malloy, DR, GUMO]
     
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
     
No submissions.
     
OPERATIONAL NOTES
     
CIRS/NIBRS Update - Training sessions for the Criminal Incident Reporting 
System/National Incident-Based Reporting System (CIRS/NIBRS) administrators 
have been scheduled for the following areas: April 2-3 - Washington, D.C.; 
April 16-17 - Jean Lafitte NHP, Louisiana; April 24-25 - Denver, CO; May 14- 
16 - New York City area, NY.  There will also be a class in Boston sometime 
in May (dates haven't yet been confirmed).  This training is mandated for 
employees in parks using the CIRS program, as the Service is required to 
provide the FBI with the criminal incident data produced by the report.  The 
CIRS program meets this requirement as well as other reporting needs of both 
parks and the Service.  All parks should be employing this system.  Once 
trained, system operators can install the program and provide the necessary 
training to report writers.  The next version of the CIRS program is 
scheduled for release in the next week or two and will make some much needed 
changes, including operation with Windows active.  The LAN version 
programming should also be underway shortly.  We are looking at October 1st 
as the target date for each park to begin uploading all of their case 
incidents to the CIRS/NIBRS computer in Ranger Activities, which will make it 
possible for that office to produce all required reports without having to 
solicit information from the field.  For further information, contact either 
Bob Reid or Kathy Clark via cc:Mail.  [Bob Reid, RAD/WASO @ SEFA]
     
New Facilities Management Chief - Dale Wilking, currently the Assistant Field 
Director for Facility Management, Design and Construction in Northeast Field 
Area, has been selected as chief of the Park Facility Management Division in 
WASO.   Wilking brings considerable experience to the job, having previously 
served as regional chief of facility management for the former Mid-Atlantic 
Region, and as chief facility manager at Colonial and at Carlsbad.  Prior to 
that he worked in numerous parks, including Yellowstone (where he began his 
NPS career in 1970), Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, and 
Yosemite.  He will EOD in WASO on April 28th.  [John Gingles, FMD/WASO]
     
Follow-up on Radio Offering - The notice regarding the availability of radios 
from NIFC which appeared in the Morning Report earlier this month led to 
requests for 410 radios from the NPS.  BLM areas requested another 287 
radios.  NIFC provided 200 to each agency.  Of the 200 provided to the NPS, 
40 will be kept in a prescribed natural fire cache in Boise and the remaining 
160 will be sent to requesting parks.  Most of these units are going to 
smaller parks with little or no radio support.  [Doug Erskine, RAD/Boise]
     
MEMORANDA
     
No submissions.
     
EXCHANGE
     
Site Monitors - Rangers at Biscayne are seeking information regarding remote 
site monitors to help with the protection and monitoring of cultural and 
archeological sites within the park, particularly underwater monitors which 
can be placed near wreck sites or a monitoring system that can detect 
activity on the water surface above a site.  They are also interested in 
monitoring systems for numerous terrestrial sites.  If you have any past 
experience or information on a monitoring system which may be well suited for 
the above applications, please send a cc:Mail note to BISC Ranger Activities 
to the attention of Scott Keninitz of Americorps or ranger David Pharo. 
Scott and David can also be reached by telephone at 305-230-1144 ext.3069.  
     
OBSERVATIONS
     
"From the Director down, the Park Service employees are career people.  It 
must be so.  The peculiar nature of the work - a strange combination of 
policemanship, tactful public relations, instruction, entertainment, and 
self-discipline - necessarily appeals only to a certain type of person.  A 
beginner in this tough school is not long in finding out whether the right 
vocation was chosen."
     
                                  - Freeman Tilden, "The Fifth Essence"
     
Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park, 
office and/or field area cc:Mail hub coordinators.  Please address requests 
for the Morning Report to your servicing hub coordinator.
     
Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and 
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.
     
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