Acadia to cut summer jobs in budget squeeze

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – Park officials will hire 20 to 30 fewer seasonal workers and make other spending cuts in the coming months as they grapple with a projected budget shortfall of $500,000.

“It’s only going to get worse” over the next several years, Superintendent Sheridan Steele predicted Monday during his report to the Acadia Advisory Commission. The federal budget cuts have the potential to be the most serious problem at Acadia in the near future, Steele said.

President Bush’s budget plan, approved by Congress last month, calls for cuts to education, the environment and agriculture while boosting funding for defense and homeland security, Steele said.

A large part of the park’s budget deficit can be attributed to Congress’ giving all federal employees a 4.1 percent raise and then failing to provide the money to pay for them, Steele said.

In addition, all federal departments have been told to make across-the-board cuts equaling 1.2 percent of their operational budgets.

Steele and other park officials said they will reduce maintenance and interpretation costs, and will cut the summer work force by 20 to 30 jobs.

Other cuts also may be made.

“We are faced with serious decisions about how we’re going to approach” budget shortfalls if they continue into the future, Steele said.

The Acadia Advisory Commission is appointed by the governor to serve as counsel to park officials as they struggle with myriad issues, including crowding, pollution, and overuse of some of the park’s most popular destinations.

Acadia is among the most beloved parks in America, attracting about 2.4 million visitors last year, a decline of 11 percent from 2002.

Len Bobinchock, assistant superintendent of Acadia, noted that the public is sometimes confounded by the park’s budget when it hears that jobs are being cut at the same time multimillion-dollar projects are being funded.

“It’s confusing to the public when we have money to build new restrooms but no one to clean them,” Bobinchock said.

Acadia gets three different kinds of funding:

. Some $5.6 million annually for day-to-day operations.

. Targeted federal funding for specific one-time capital improvement projects.

. Upwards of $2 million a year from entrance fees, which cannot, by law, be used for the operational budget.

The commission, which had little reaction Monday to the budget news, plans to take another look at the park budget at its next meeting on June 7.