ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – The Bush administration has recommended less funding for Acadia National Park in the new fiscal year that begins in October and park leaders predicted Monday that even more services to the public will be eliminated next summer.

Bush’s budget proposal, still languishing in Congress, allots $37,000 less for Acadia in 2005, or about $6.27 million, park officials said.

However, Congress is poised to give all federal employees a 3.5 percent pay increase, which would represent about $250,000 to Acadia.

The 2005 funding reduction would follow a $500,000 decrease in funding in the current year, compounding the park’s financial problem.

Those numbers don’t take into account the National Park Service internal “assessments” Acadia must make, including sending money to the regional office to help support those operations.

“I don’t want to alarm people because Congress hasn’t approved the budget,” Acadia Deputy Superintendent Len Bobinchock told the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission on Monday. “We’ll have to wait and see what transpires here.”

However, without a significant change in course, Bobinchock and other park leaders predict more of the same: service cuts to the public, continuing a hiring freeze already in effect, putting off vehicle maintenance and repair, elimination of virtually all training and travel allowances and hiring substantially fewer summer employees.

The Bush administration also has eliminated land acquisition funding for Acadia, although the park has authority to buy 162 tracts of land that are deemed important to protecting the park.

Meanwhile, park officials had more bad news: Visits were down 15 percent in July and are likely to be down significantly overall when the final figures are available in a couple of weeks.

Bobinchock said ridership on Island Explorer buses declined this summer by 11 percent through Sept. 1, the first time the bus service has suffered a loss of riders since its inception in 1999.

Commission Chairman Steven Katona, president of College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, said if the federal funding trends continue, “I believe we will see a noticeable erosion of services and infrastructure and I believe that would be a serious loss to one of America’s most prominent national parks.”

Bobinchock was not concerned only about the money. With fewer employees, staff has been working hard “and at some point in time it is going to be too much for them to handle.”

Superintendent Sheridan Steele said the park cannot reduce its ranger force because of homeland security rules, which means park officials will continue to focus on educational programs for the public, maintenance delays and seasonal employment for further reductions.

“The cuts will be cumulative,” Steele said.

The good news for Acadia is the continuing money it gets from entry fees, which is used for major capital improvement projects such as the total rehabilitation of Blackwoods and Seawall campgrounds, or funding for the propane-powered Island Explorer bus system.

Ken Olson, president of Friends of Acadia, reiterated his concern about reduced operational funding for the park. He said Friends members might reduce their donations if they think their money is funding the day-to-day park expenses that are the obligation of the federal government.

“We want to continue to provide a margin of excellence that can’t be achieved by the park alone, not a margin of survival for government operations,” Olson said.