NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Friday, January 16, 2015
INCIDENTS
Independence NHP
Fire Suppressed At Second Bank Of The United States
On Tuesday, January 13th, National Park Service staff and the Philadelphia Fire Department responded to smoke alarms in the Second Bank of the United States, a building within Independence National Historical Park. Thanks to the prompt response from the Philadelphia Fire Department, a small fire in a mechanical unit in the basement was extinguished safely. There were no injuries and no damage to the building structure.
The building will remain closed to visitors while park staff ensure that this National Historic Landmark is fully cleaned and restored. Park management anticipates the Second Bank will re-open in early May, based on a preliminary assessment. The park will open New Hall Military Museum on weekends, starting January 24th.
The Second Bank of the United States houses the park's exhibit of 195 portraits, many of them by 18th century artist Charles Willson Peale. Fortunately, damage to this collection was minimal. Park curators and outside conservators will work together over the coming months to clean each portrait and other museum objects housed in the Second Bank. The building will reopen to visitors while this conservation work progresses and visitors will be invited to learn about the cleaning and conservation process.
[Jane Cowley, Public Affairs Officer]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers):
Land Resources Division - A unique public-private partnership is facilitating federal acquisition of private inholdings across the vast landscapes of Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and Mojave National preserve.
Kenai Fjords NP - An Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center education coordinator has been reaching out to the next generation of park visitors, supporters, and advocates by bringing music to a local elementary school.
Historical Documentation Programs - Submissions are being sought for the Charles E. Peterson Prize, awarded for the best sets of measured drawings prepared by student teams of a Historic American Buildings Survey site.
Pacific West Region - Todd Suess has been selected as the new superintendent for Mojave National Preserve in California. He has been acting in that position since Stephanie Dubois retired last month.
Upcoming Training Calendar - The following have been added to this week's calendar - information on applying to the FMLP mentors program and a webinar in February on managing human-bat encounters in the NPS.
To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites:
NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index
Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/
The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov).
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