By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch Randy King wants visitors to Mount Rainier National Park to enjoy themselves and the surroundings as much as possible, and he hopes Congress will do its part. The National Park Service last week announced it delayed $11.4 billion in maintenance at its parks across the United States. At Mount Rainier alone, the backlog of deferred projects totals $298.3 million. The Park Service, which has proposed raising park visitor fees to help fill the gap, says a lack of funding has kept Mount Rainier and the rest of the national park system from keeping up with maintenance of roads and bridges, visitor centers, trails and for more than a year. Meanwhile, facilities are getting older and the use of park facilities is rising. The Park Service's Fiscal Year 2016 budget request is aimed at reducing the glut of unmet maintenance in time for the agency's centennial next year. King, the superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park, said the budget request, if approved by Congress, "will allow us to restore several of our highest-priority non-transportation assets to good condition.GÇ¥ He said that would include rehabilitation and seismic stabilization of the Paradise Inn Annex that was built in 1921. "We're inviting the world to discover the special places in the national park system, like Mount Rainier, during our centennial celebration. We need to have facilities that can accommodate guests and provide the best possible visitor experience,GÇ¥ King said. The National Park Service's overall budget request for non-transportation assets includes an increase of $242.8 million for operations and construction, in combination with a mandatory proposal to provide $300 million annually over three years, officials said. The money would pay for restoring non-transportation facilities to good condition over 10 years. According to park officials, roads and bridges account for about half of deferred maintenance nationally and more than two-thirds of the backlog at Mount Rainier. The Park Service receives some funding for such projects through the Federal Lands Transportation Program in the surface transportation legislation. Those funds are due to expire in May. President Obama's proposal for the transportation bill that's being considered in Congress includes $150 million in new, additional funding that would be awarded competitively for major transportation projects on federal and tribal land. The president's proposal "could address some of the Park Service's large, critical deferred maintenance transportation projects,GÇ¥ King said. "Completing those projects would pave the way for many of the hundreds of millions of visitors that come to national parks each year.GÇ¥ At Mount Rainier, which annually attracts more than a million visitors, the recent rebuilding of 10 miles of the Stevens Canyon Road and the ongoing rehabilitation of the 17.6-mile Nisqually Road to Paradise are examples of the park's "critical transportation projects,GÇ¥ King said. The $8.9 million Stevens Canyon Road project, funded through the Federal Highway Administration, included improvements of the Ohanapecosh and Falls Creek bridges, culverts, guard walls, retaining walls, turnouts and the short Wonderland Trail section adjacent to Reflection Lake. The Nisqually Road remake began earlier began in 2014 for the heavily traveled route between the park's Nisqually entrance and the Paradise recreation area. The $32 million worth of new paving, drainage and other improvements is expected to be completed in 2017. Visitor fees at national parks could go up this year under a proposal by the Park Service. At Mount Rainier, the entrance fee would increase to $25 for a seven-day vehicle pass, and camping fees would rise to $20 per night for any park campsite. The new rates would be $10 higher than the current fees. Park Service officials justify higher fees for all 131 national park sites by noting that more revenue is needed to pay for repair and maintenance of visitor facilities, capital improvements, protecting natural resources, and amenities such as a proposed online backcountry reservation system. Money from fees also pays for park personnel and maps and brochures for visitors. Of Mount Rainier's $298-plus million in deferred maintenance, $225 million is road work, $32.9 milliion is for buildings, $2.4 million for staff housing, $5.1 million for campgrounds, $10.2 million for trails, $7.3 million for water and wastewater systems, and another $15.2 million for other maintenance, such as utilities, interpretive media and amphitheaters. Among parks with larger to-do lists than Mount Rainier are Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona ($329.4 million) and Yosemite in California ($552.7 million). In Washington, delayed maintenance totals $507.1 million, including $133.2 million at Olympic National Park.
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