Date: June 27, 2008
Contact: Diane East, 501-623-2824
The Fiscal Year 2008 funding includes annual appropriation, fee revenues, and special project money received to finance specific goals outlined in the park’s performance plan, said Josie Fernandez, park superintendent. Highlights include:
• $1.416 million for facility operation and maintenance. Provides support to ensure that all necessary park facilities are available for public use and structures, natural and cultural resources are preserved for future use. Visitors are provided access to the park’s public facilities including the Gulpha Gorge Campground and Picnic area, Bathhouse Row, Grand Promenade, Mountain Overlooks, Thermal Fountains, Scenic Mountain Drives, 26 miles of hiking trails, Whittington Park, Arlington Lawn, and the Hot Springs National Park Visitor Center in the historic Fordyce Bathhouse. The park provides for visitor satisfaction with quality park resources, facilities, and recreational opportunities.
• $1.325 million for visitor services. Provides for visitor safety, enjoyment, and understanding of the significance of Hot Springs National Park and its natural and historic features. The park provides public programs, including Junior Ranger programs, thermal feature tours, interpretive tours of the Fordyce Bathhouse, and a variety of external programs to schools, organizations, etc. The visitor center is open 362 days a year to provide information, exhibits, and programs for park visitors. Through the effort of the interpretive and protection staffs, visitors have the opportunity to learn about the park’s natural resources, including the thermal springs and its history. $8,900 has been identified for the park to use in administering its Volunteers-in-Parks program.
• $1.08 million for park administration and management. The park’s compliance with legal requirements to expend available funds and personnel efforts in the most effective way requires support staff. Business activities conducted in the park and requests for special uses of park facilities are administered and monitored to protect park resources and comply with authorized uses.
• $112,000 for resource preservation and management. The park’s goal is to protect the thermal springs and their recharge zone as well as numerous other natural features and resources. Exotic plant species damaging the park will have control measures implemented to protect and preserve native plants and wildlife. The park has also been funded $3,700 to purchase a Radon detection device.
• $251,000 from the NPS Centennial Initiative to hire up to 18 temporary seasonal employees to perform a variety of maintenance, interpretive, and resource management functions.
• $15,000 from the NPS Centennial Challenge, added to $15,000 donated from the Friends of the Fordyce and Hot Springs National Park, Inc., for installation of utility services to ten sites at the Gulpha Gorge Campground.
• $172,000 in concessioner franchise fee revenues will be used to prepare a Historic Structure Report for the Libbey Memorial Physical Medical Center (PMC) that will provide the park assistance in future rehabilitation of the historic structure.
• $1,518 million in Repair/Rehabilitation funding for rehabilitation projects including the heating and a/c system in the historic Administration Building; ½ mile of the Grand Promenade; Maintenance area restrooms, offices and landscaping; Maurice Spring walls and fountain; Bathhouse Row stone retaining walls; the Fordyce marquee and courtyard area; and sewer lines in historic Reserve Street buildings.
• $279,000 in Cyclic Maintenance funding for projects including painting historic buildings, maintaining roads and trails, repairing the thermal water system, replacing signs, and maintaining landscape areas, and removing hazardous trees.
• $24,000 to hire 10 Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) students for 8 weeks during the summer to assist with visitor facility projects and work in the visitor center.
• $29,000 to upgrade two park visitor center movies/videos to be ADA compliant.
• $5,000 to begin planning for the new park General Management Plan. This is a multi-year project with a total estimated cost of $800,000.
• $80,000 in estimated revenues from thermal spring water user charges to three hotel bathhouses and one hospital outside the park, the mountain tower, and two bathhouses in the park will contribute to the operation and maintenance cost of the park’s thermal spring water collection and distribution system.
• $8,000 in estimated special park use fee revenues will be retained by the park to purchase materials and supplies to be used by the park.
Copies of Hot Springs National Park’s 2008-2012 Strategic Plan and FY 2008 Annual Performance Plan, prepared in accordance with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), are available by writing to Hot Springs National Park, 101 Reserve Street, Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901.
The goals described in the performance plan are derived from the current National Park Service Strategic Plan, which establishes a performance management process for the Service and incorporate the requirements of GPRA. The Strategic Plan is available on the National Park Service’s worldwide web homepage at www.nps.gov.
