Not a political post, just a heads up on events which could affect your plans...

If sequestering happens one week from today,

"Yosemite National Park in CA, will delay the opening of the Tioga and Glacier Point roads by as much as four weeks due to limitations on snow removal resulting from reduced staffing which will impact thousands of visitors. In 2011, Yosemite National Park had a near record 4,098,648 visitors."

There is more.

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wagga
Not a political post, just a heads up on events which could affect your plans...

If sequestering happens one week from today,

"Yosemite National Park in CA, will delay the opening of the Tioga and Glacier Point roads by as much as four weeks due to limitations on snow removal resulting from reduced staffing which will impact thousands of visitors. In 2011, Yosemite National Park had a near record 4,098,648 visitors."

There is more.

Hmmmm....

I wonder, if that turns out to be the case, if one could simply hike up there and have it to oneself, much like what happens in winter when one cross country skis up there.

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wagga
Not a political post, just a heads up on events which could affect your plans...

If sequestering happens one week from today,

"Yosemite National Park in CA, will delay the opening of the Tioga and Glacier Point roads by as much as four weeks due to limitations on snow removal resulting from reduced staffing which will impact thousands of visitors. In 2011, Yosemite National Park had a near record 4,098,648 visitors."

I suspect that should the NPS not have funds to plow the Tioga Road, the state (CalTrans) and/or Inyo County would help out, given the economic importance of having the Tioga Road open.

Of course, given how dry it's been this year, it may not need all that much plowing anyway :-(

Could have one heck of a shovel party -- ending with pizza at Whoaa Nellie's!!!

---

The body betrays and the weather conspires, hopefully, not on the same day.

Caltrans will do what it needs to do up to the National Park boundary, but no further barring funds from the Feds or an agreement to reimburse some portion of the work. Caltrans is strapped and District 10, which covers the Sierras from SR 88 to Yosemite, is its armpit.

Uh.... wait a minute here.... is this something someone at Yosemite has said or something the The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees believes will happen? Saying there will be a delay of "up to four weeks" doesn't sound right since the Park don't even know the day, week, or month, the road will open, and a group of retirees would know even less.

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Dave
Uh.... wait a minute here.... is this something someone at Yosemite has said or something the The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees believes will happen? Saying there will be a delay of "up to four weeks" doesn't sound right since the Park don't even know the day, week, or month, the road will open, and a group of retirees would know even less.

Here is a report from ABC.

"As America's financial clock ticks toward forced spending cuts to countless government agencies, The Associated Press has obtained a National Park Service memo that compiles a list of potential effects at the nation's most beautiful and historic places just as spring vacation season begins.

"We're planning for this to happen and hoping that it doesn't," said Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olson, who confirmed that the list is authentic and represents cuts the department is considering. "

That source is a bit better. It sounds like the various parks provided a list of things that could be cut, not that all of them would be cut. I've run a business before and had to make such decisions. My staff and I came up with a similar list of many places we could cut. Not all got cut. But what gets me is this is only a 5% cut and people are acting like it's a 50% cut.

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Dave
But what gets me is this is only a 5% cut and people are acting like it's a 50% cut.

I was thinking that although a 5% cut would mean that some activities would get reduced, it wouldn't look like, say, removing only 95% of the snow from a road and patching only 95% of the potholes before reopening it. It seems more likely that 95% of roads would get completely reopened on schedule and the other 5% left closed. In that case, you could say it would look more like 100% cuts to 5% of facilities.

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gophersnake
I was thinking that although a 5% cut would mean that some activities would get reduced, it wouldn't look like, say, removing only 95% of the snow from a road and patching only 95% of the potholes before reopening it. It seems more likely that 95% of roads would get completely reopened on schedule and the other 5% left closed. In that case, you could say it would look more like 100% cuts to 5% of facilities.

I doubt it would work that way. If I understand it right, that 5% cut would take 5 years. So, instead of digging a silly hole for a pedestrian underpass, they just put the parking lot back. Instead of buying two new fire engines, they buy only one, or get less expensive extras. Instead of contracting out road striping, they do it themselves. They could probably save 5% just by going to energy efficient light bulbs.

Oh great, increased traffic over Sonora.