# Grand Canyon Issues



## BilloutWest (Jan 25, 2013)

This gets complicated with who recently bought Xanterra.

Just a heads up that more of the Park Service hassles may be coming your way.


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## BilloutWest (Jan 25, 2013)

Here is the current NPS budget overview.

100 million isn't as big as you'd think but its still likely to be a problem for the basic American Park user.

http://www.doi.gov/budget/appropriations/2015/highlights/upload/BH071.pdf


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## glenn (May 13, 2009)

I went snooping for an explanation on what exactly the fuck up was and found this illuminating: The NPS Says It's Promoting Competition, but a Grand Canyon Concessionaire Claims Otherwise | Phoenix New Times


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## GCHiker4887 (Feb 10, 2014)

Yep, Uberuaga really messed this whole thing up at GC. It is sad a bunch of the other parks in the system had to throw in and contribute to the buydown of Xanterra's investments.

Couple this with the fact that Xanterra has applied for Trademarks for the names of iconic places (El Tovar, Bright Angel & Phantom Ranch) and this mess gets deeper and deeper.

The main motivation here is for NPS to make 12-13% concession fee instead of the 2-3% it had been making. 

When are parks are turned for profit (see Colorado River through GC), then the public as a whole suffers.


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## BilloutWest (Jan 25, 2013)

GCHiker4887 said:


> Yep, *Uberuaga* really messed this whole thing up at GC. ..........





> What should be construed from the story that a National Park Service superintendent sold his house for more than *three times its assessed value *to a key concessionaire in his park and didn’t view it as a *conflict of interest?*
> 
> News that *David Uberuaga* sold his Ashford, Washington, home to the owner of Rainier Mountaineering, Inc., while he was superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park with oversight of the concessionaire, appears to be a troubling conflict of interest.
> 
> Atop that are allegations from a watchdog group that Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, at one time Mr. Uberuaga's immediate boss, intervened to see that Mr. Uberuaga was named this past summer as superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park.


=======

I'm really confused by all of this.
I'm retired USFS.
I have always held the Park Service in high regard.
I thought the people that I had the privilege of working with in the Parks were high ethic and their bosses were the same.
I was just a FF and didn't do much with management in a 40 year fire career.

Where did this crap come from?


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## GCHiker4887 (Feb 10, 2014)

I can't speak for anything not GC-related, since that is where my interests lie, but I had heard of some of the Ranier stuff. 

The GC Concession package is pretty messed up at this point. Just the fact that every NPS unit (or most of them) had to contribute to the buydown of Xanterra is pretty crappy system-wide. I believe the intent of the whole thing was to get more bids and open up competition, but it will really take a toll on visitor services. If you do some Google Searching you will be enlightened. GC NPS is in process of settling a lawsuit now with Xanterra, who is under a 1 year renewal.


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