NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Friday, April 11, 1997

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

97-130 - Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHP (New York) - Follow-up on Winter Storm

Electrical power was finally restored to the Franklin Roosevelt site on the
afternoon of April 8th - the last of the park's areas to go back on line and
reopen to the public following last week's northeaster.  The storm brought
down trees and electrical lines throughout the area, knocking out power to
all park structures.  Repair crews from as far away as Virginia, Pennsylvania
and western New York were brought in to make repairs to downed lines
throughout the lower Hudson Valley.  The park was closed until the morning of
Saturday, April 5th, when power was restored to the Eleanor Roosevelt site
and the Vanderbilt mansion.  It will take park crews several more weeks to
remove trees and debris from park grounds and trails.  [CRO, ROVA, 4/9]

97-150 - Independence NHP (Pennsylvania) - HazMat Closures

Independence Hall and the four other historic buildings in the same block
were closed to the public on April 9th due to slightly elevated levels of
airborne asbestos.  The source of the contamination is unclear, but is
probably associated with a three year project to upgrade the utilities in the
historic buildings.  The buildings closed have basements that are
interconnected.  While two historic buildings - Old City Hall and the east
wing of Independence Hall - have since reopened following further testing,
Independence Hall will remain closed for at least a week while the building
is cleaned.  Congress Hall and the west wing of Independence Hall were
already closed due to the renovation project.  The President's Summit on
America's Future, which is to be held in the park later this month, will not
be affected, since all events are to occur outdoors.  [PAO, INDE, 4/10]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Maintenance Employee Recognized - On April 2nd, the Park Police presented
National Capital Parks maintenance employee Marlyn Bowman with a certificate
of appreciation for his assistance in apprehending a wanted person.  On
September 30, 1996, Bowman saw a man peering into vehicles along Ohio Drive
in West Potomac Park.  He provided a Park Police officer with a detailed
description of the man, then accompanied the officer to the park and
identified the individual.  A computer check revealed that there were two
outstanding warrants against the man for crimes committed in the park. 
Bowman remained with the officer until a back-up unit arrived and the man was
taken into custody.  [Bill Lynch, RLES, NCR]

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

EXCHANGE

No submissions.

OBSERVATIONS

This section, which appears intermittently in the Morning Report, contains
observations regarding the National Park Service, the System and the several
professions of park employees.  

"The unprotected wilderness of the West is one of our greatest strengths as a
country.  Another is our imagination, our tendency to think, rather than
accept - to challenge, to ask why, and what if; to create, rather than to
destroy.  This questioning is a kind of wildness, a kind of strength, that
many have said is peculiarly American...To hold on to one of the last things
truly American and truly unique - a sense of place in the American West -
would be an act of strength and a continued source of great power."

                                  Author Rick Bass in "Testimony:
Writers of the West Speak On Behalf
of Utah Wilderness", compiled by
Stephen Trimble and Terry Tempest
Williams, 1996

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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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