Thread: FEDS REJECT OFFER BY ARIZONA GOV. TO REOPEN GRAND CANYON USING STATE FUNDS

GOVERNMENT

FEDS REJECT OFFER BY ARIZONA GOV. TO REOPEN GRAND CANYON USING STATE FUNDS

Oct. 5, 2013 8:43am Oliver Darcy

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday that federal officials declined her offer to reopen the Grand Canyon using state funds.

“I offered to reopen the Grand Canyon to visitors by using state money, but federal officials declined my offer,” Brewer said in a Facebook post. “I really shouldn’t be surprised that the Obama Administration doesn’t want Arizona’s help.”

The National Parks Service closed all national parks, including the Grand Canyon, to the public earlier this week, blaming the federal government shutdown.

The Grand Canyon. (Image source: Shutterstock.com)

An NPS official said as long as the government is shut down, the Grand Canyon will remain closed to the public.
“I appreciate the support and I thanked them for the offer, but it’s not an offer we can accept,” said park superintendent Dave Uberuaga, according to Fox News.
Private businesses, affected by the closure of the iconic park, have also offered to pay for the park to reopen.
Businesses have pledged over $100,000 and a town council committed $200,000 to open one of the viewpoints, according to Fox News.
Those offers were all reportedly rejected.

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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...g-state-funds/

COMMENTS (220)

2,000 Grand Canyon Workers Said Stranded Without Food, Money To Leave

October 8, 2013 by UPI - United Press International, Inc.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (UPI) — The government shutdown has stranded about 2,000 workers in Grand Canyon National Park with little food and insufficient funds to leave, officials say.
The workers are being aided by area food banks and resort officials, The (Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun reported Tuesday.
The closure of the park during the federal government shutdown has had a “devastating” effect on workers, said Jerry Brown, a spokesman for St. Mary’s Food in Phoenix that delivered 600 boxes of food to the park Tuesday.
About 2,200 people are still inside the park, about 1,800 of them employees of resorts and other concessionaires.
Some of those employees work for Forever Resorts, which operates a concession on the North Rim that wasn’t scheduled to close for two weeks.
“We’re trying to help them as much as we can, but our revenue is struggling too,” said Scott Gold, the company’s regional vice president.
One employee contacted the company because he couldn’t afford to leave the park and find work elsewhere.
“He said ‘I don’t know what to do. I have less than $100. I was relying on my last week’s pay to get out of here,’” Gold said of the worker.
Forever Resorts announced Monday it was losing $250,000 a day because of the shutdown.
The park’s largest contractor, Xanterra, says it continues to feed its employees three meals a day, but only one meal a day to workers’ families. Other park employers don’t provide any food to their workers.
St. Mary’s said it plans to continue providing food through next week, but Brown said it’s running low on supplies too.

Filed Under: Breaking Now


http://personalliberty.com/2013/10/0...oney-to-leave/