Issue 2: Winter 2000 page 5

FY 2000 Budget and Activities Summary

After an excellent year in 1999, we are pleased to be able to continue our resource protection and, with the opening of the Tredegar Visitor Center on the riverfront, increase our educational efforts in fiscal year (FY) 2000. We will continue to integrate donated lands into park operations; we will continue to upgrade the maintenance of public areas and cope with the effects of natural disasters; and we will continue to offer more and varied programs to the public to increase understanding of our history. We want you to be excited about experiencing your America here and throughout the National Park System.

Highlights of the battlefield park's $2.194 million operating budget, which funds specific goals in the annual performance plan, include:

$722,000 for preservation and protection of the park's ten battlefields, historic sites, and museum objects. The acreage is increased this year to 1460 acres through the donation of approximately 700 acres at Malvern Hill and Glendale battlefields through the generosity of the Civil War Preservation Trust.

$1,472,000 to address visitor services, safety, education and interpretive media. The park presently has two staffed visitor centers, at Chimborazo and Cold Harbor, that are open 363 days this year. Two facilities, at Glendale Cemetery and at Fort Harrison, will continue to be staffed every day during the summer months. The Tredegar Visitor Center, on the James River waterfront, will be inaugurated in April to start full time, year round service. The Tredegar facility is made possible by the generous donation of 2.8 million dollars from the Richmond corporate community, nearly $900,000 of Transportation Enhancement Act money, and the cooperation of the Ethyl Corporation that owns the building. The park has regularly experienced visitation of a quarter million visitors and expects a significant increase this year. In FY 2000 the park will completely replace exhibits at Chimborazo to tell the medical story there and finish the construction project there to make the facility physically accessible to all.

Highlights of the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site budget of $545,000 include:

• $238,000 for preservation and protection of the park's historic buildings and museum objects
• $307,000 to address visitor services, safety, education and interpretive media.

The park is preparing for a major construction project that will completely rehabilitate the remaining for structures of the site for use as exhibit/educational space and office space.

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