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Interior secretary gets his first look at Cuyahoga Valley
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Wednesday, Jun 03, 2009
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park has a big financial impact on Northeast Ohio, says U.S. Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar, who got his first look at the park Tuesday.
The 33,000-acre federal park between Akron and Cleveland gets 2.8 million visitors a year, making it the sixth most-visited national park in the United States.
That puts Cuyahoga Valley up there in 2008 attendance with Yosemite, Olympic, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain and Zion.
The park supports 1,000 jobs and provides a $38-million-a-year financial boost to Northeast Ohio, he said.
''It's an awesome place . . . and one of the premier national parks in the county,'' he said.
Salazar rode the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad from the Canal Visitor Center in Valley View to the Station Road Bridge Trailhead in Brecksville, where he was greeted by Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and held a brief news conference.
Salazar announced that the National Park Service will offer three fee-free weekends in national parks this summer to encourage Americans to visit the country's 391 parks, monuments and historic sites and to make the parks more affordable.
Admission fees will be waived at the 147 parks that charge them on
June 20-21, July 18-19 and Aug. 15-16, he said.
That change does not affect the Cuyahoga Valley, where no fees are charged, but park officials are planning special events those weekends to lure more visitors.
Superintendent John Debo said that 10 percent of the visitors to the Cuyahoga Valley are from other states, and that total is slowly growing.
Tourism is booming in Northeast Ohio, despite the stagnant economy, said Dennis Roche, president of Positively Cleveland.
Salazar touted the $23 million in federal stimulus money that is coming to Ohio's national parks. That includes $7 million for the Cuyahoga Valley park.
That money will seal four leaking gas and oil wells, replace a historic aqueduct over Tinkers Creek, eliminate failing septic systems in Everett, replace old railroad ties and upgrade nine miles of rail line.
After his news conference, Salazar had a group photograph taken with about 125 staffers of the Cuyahoga Valley park.
He then boarded the train and rode it north to the Canal Visitor Center, where he met with a group of Cleveland junior high school students who are staying at the park's Environmental Education Center.
He then headed to Cleveland and delivered similar messages during a luncheon program at the City Club of Cleveland.
In response to a question, Salazar said federal officials are working with Debo to find the funds to purchase land at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls to keep it from being developed.
The Cleveland-based Musical Arts Association has indicated it would like to sell off 620 acres around the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra.
A possible solution would be to earmark more money from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund from offshore oil drilling to go to parks, but only 1 percent of that money is being used for parks now, he said. Changing that federal policy might be part of the remedy for the Cuyahoga Valley park, he said.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park has a big financial impact on Northeast Ohio, says U.S. Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar, who got his first look at the park Tuesday.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 07:45 AM, 06/03/2009
Wait... We have four LEAKING natural gas and oils wells? And they are just gonna be allowed to leak until the money comes? First off, if they are leaking they can produce, so lets get that energy not seal them up. (Just build a rustic shed around the pump for asthetics). Secondly, its an enviromental hazard. (I cant dump oil into the ground, why can the Govt?) Lastly, we know another reason fuel prices are high...
