Parks Perfect Place to Spend Stimulus Cash
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Phoenix, AZ – National parks advocates are calling the current recession "an historic opportunity" to re-invest in what have been called "America's Wonderlands." They're hoping federal job-creation dollars will help reduce a massive, $9 billion parks maintenance backlog. Roads and parking lots are crumbling, water and sewer systems are failing and historic buildings are falling apart.
In Arizona, Craig Obey of the National Parks Conservation Association says Grand Canyon National Park is losing workers by housing them in dilapidated double-wide trailers.
"There are opportunities at the Grand Canyon to construct employee housing that's sorely needed to keep people there employed, and reduce turnover."
A $15-million project to provide 64 new Grand Canyon housing units meets President-elect Obama's "ready-to-go" requirement. Obey says studies have shown each dollar invested in national parks returns at least four dollars in economic benefit.
Obey says national parks are located in big cities and small towns, but that the impact of renovating the parks will be most noticeable in rural areas such as northern Arizona.
"Those are investments that can really touch many, many different communities around the nation in a very effective and targeted way. And in many of those rural communities it only takes a few jobs to make an enormous difference."
Nationwide, Obey says, there are $2.5 billion worth of "shovel-ready" national parks projects that would create 57,000 new jobs.
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