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Two weeks into the government shutdown, National Parks are starting to close. The public has been getting free access, since there are no employees to collect entrance fees of up to $35 per car. But neither are employees there to collect trash and clean bathrooms. So, with overflowing trash cans and toilets posing a threat to human health and safety, parks are shutting down.
But in the nation's oldest national park, Yellowstone, local businesses are pitching in to pay park staff to keep it open — or at least parts of it.
[...] Jerry Johnson owns a business that rents snowmobiles and sends seven guided tours a day into Yellowstone in the winter. He calls it 'the trip of a lifetime.' When the shutdown began, he received a big spike in phone calls from people who had already booked trips, and he didn't want to tell them their Yellowstone adventure was cancelled because politicians in Washington D.C. couldn't resolve their differences.
[...] "If you don't groom," explained Johnson, "the trails will get very rough, and you get bumps, moguls, in them, and it'll be — it's just miserable."
So, during the shutdown, private businesses that operate inside the park are picking up the tab — about $7,500 dollars a day to groom Yellowstone's 300-plus miles of snow-covered roads, and to keep one paved road open to cars. Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which runs the only hotels operating inside the park in winter, is paying most of that — paying park service employees to perform the same grooming duties they do under normal circumstances.Xanterra asked the 13 guide services that operate in the park to chip in to help pay, and all of them did. It adds up to about 300 bucks a day for each of the guide services.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Monday January 14 2019, @05:51PM (3 children)
Seems like these companies should be paying part of these costs anyways.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 5, Informative) by meustrus on Monday January 14 2019, @06:30PM
They are, and so are their customers. It's called taxes.
It's also called cabin rental fees, which were also paid to the government.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 14 2019, @06:34PM (1 child)
I suspect that they most likely do so - at least indirectly. They all have licensing fees, if not other fees and costs that the park service collects from them. I'm not even going to guess how much they pay the government every year, for the privilege of operating within the park, but it is probably substantial.
In the absence of better information, I'll take a stab, and say they probably pay more than 10% of the operating costs of the park, possibly as much as 25%.
I see legal difficulties down the road, for these businesses, as well as for the park staff who are performing these chores. Uncle is going to slap someone for having paid those personnel, and then slap the park staff who accepted payment for having done these jobs. Ultimately, the park staff will end up being paid twice, for having performed their jobs once. Some lawyer, somewhere, is going to see an opportunity to fuck over a lot of people, while extracting his Judas' silver.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @06:59PM
Shhhh, the lawyers can hear you. Don't give them ideas.