NATION NOW

Tenn. cities push Congress to fund repairs in Smokies

Michael Collins
Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel
Great Smoky Mountains National Park

WASHINGTON — Four east Tennessee cities are calling on Congress to fund more than $232 million in repairs to roads, campgrounds and other facilities at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as the sprawling tourist magnet celebrates the 100th anniversary of the nation's park system.

City governments in Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Maryville have all passed resolutions asking Congress to create a "reliable, predictable stream of resources" to address the backlog of needed maintenance at the park.

"We know the park has a lot of needs," Sevierville Mayor Brian Atchley said. But, "funding out of Congress for our national parks has not been a priority."

Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner said that while millions of people visit the park every year, many don't realize that its upkeep comes at a hefty cost.

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"We need to make sure we care for what I call America's heirloom," Werner said. "It takes money to maintain these resources."

The park, which spans 522,247 acres in Tennessee and North Carolina, is the most popular park in the National Park Service, with almost 11 million visitors in 2015.

The heavy crowds cause lots of wear and tear on the park's roads and other facilities, which makes maintaining them a constant challenge, said Dana Soehn, the park's spokeswoman.

More than half of the $232 million in needed maintenance involves road repairs. Some 384 miles of roads run through the park — 238 miles of those paved. The park needs roughly $175 million to repave and make other repairs to those roads, Soehn said.

The park also needs $17.4 million for repairs to its 848 miles of trails; $16.7 million to upgrade its restrooms, visitor centers and other facilities; $7.2 million to improve its water treatment system; $5.7 million to upgrade its wastewater treatment system; $2.1 million to repair its campground facilities; and $1.1 million to improve park housing.

Trails Forever crew members move boulders to stabilize the base of a log bridge on the Alum Cave Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015.

Most of the park's infrastructure was built during the 1930s and '40s, Soehn said. Since then, the park has been able to get special funding for some road repaving and to build some newer facilities, such as campgrounds and buildings.

"But it's very difficult to find the funds to just take care of all of the infrastructure we have in place," she said.

The lack of funding means routine maintenance is often put off, leading to the backlog. "If we can't get sustainable funds to help us, we're always in a backlog situation," Soehn said.

Werner said the park is east Tennessee's most important resource and Congress can't keep turning a blind eye to the need for funding its upkeep.

"Something has got to be done," he said, "or people won't be able to continue to enjoy this beautiful park."

The maintenance backlog is not unique to the Smokies. The bill for deferred maintenance at national parks is nearly $12 billion nationwide. Congressional Republicans have been reluctant to put up the additional money because they believe the government already owns too much land, yet continues to buy new sites instead of spending money to maintain those it already has.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., one of the Smokies' biggest proponents in Congress, said lawmakers have worked to address the maintenance backlog, most of which involves roads.

"In the last several years," Alexander said, "we have funded at least $50 million for the Foothills Parkway and another $10 million just last month. In my view, park roads should receive a larger share of the federal gas tax, which was a recommendation of the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors, which I chaired for President Reagan."

U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., said that while more can be done to address the backlog, National Park Service funding has jumped from $2.3 billion in 2007 to $2.8 billion in 2016, a 24% increase.

"If we would stop getting involved in so many other foreign countries' conflicts, we would have more funds to spend on things in this country like our national parks," Duncan said.

"In addition," he said, "the federal government owns almost one-third of all the land in this country. Much of it has no national significance and could be sold to the private sector. We could use the financial resources generated by such a sale of this surplus land to address the maintenance backlog in our national treasures."