St. George pledges money to keep Zion open during persistent shutdown

January 3, 2019 Utah Channel 3

ST. GEORGE — As a partial shutdown of the federal government continues well into its second week, local officials are working to keep Zion National Park open for at least another week.

Zion's South Entrance is a popular place to take photos and will be reconfigured soon — Zion National Park entrance sign and monument in Southern Utah, date not specified | Photo courtesy of Zion National Park, St. George News

As many federally managed parks have been forced to close their boundaries to all visitors, Zion has remained partially operational thanks to funding from the state of Utah and the Zion Forever Project. However, that funding runs out Saturday.

Assuming the shutdown continues past Saturday, St. George Mayor Jon Pike announced Thursday that plans are in place to keep the park partially operational for an additional week — until Jan. 12.

The cost to keep the park operational on a “bare-bones” level will be split four ways among the city, Washington County, the Utah Office of Tourism and continuing support from the nonprofit Zion Forever Project.

“We have said, ‘Look, this is significant for us,’” Pike said. “It’s important to us to make sure that we maintain at least some basic level to keep that park open.”

Each entity is pledging roughly $7,200 to allow restrooms to remain open and trash collection to continue, among with some other basic services.

As long as the shutdown continues, entrance fees will not be collected and backcountry permits will not be issued. Whether the shuttle system remains operational or visitor centers stay open past Saturday has yet to be announced.

“With the issues with the partial government shutdown, it’s left our national parks in some pretty difficult situations,” Pike said.

An entrance lane is blocked to an unattended toll booth at Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the many federally managed parks affected by a partial government shutdown, Estes Park, Colo., Dec. 22, 2018 | Associated Press file photo by David Zalubowski, St. George News

The shutdown has furloughed around 800,000 federal employees, including those working for the U.S. Department of the Interior in the National Park Service. Many parks have been forced to curtail services and close park entrances in the face of trash buildup, reckless behavior on the part of some visitors and scattered human waste.

State, city and county officials cite the importance of tourism on the Southern Utah economy as one of the driving factors in keeping Zion open on some level.

“We are doing our part to help,” Pike said. “I think that’s important to us for many reasons, but of course, the least of which is not our businesses here – our restaurants and hotels who are housing people who have made plans to come to the park even during the off-season.”

St. George’s monetary contribution will come from the city’s Economic Development Fund.

“We had some excess funds there, so we don’t have to make any changes to our budget at this point,” Pike said.

If the shutdown still isn’t resolved by Jan 12, Pike said the City Council might consider additional funding.

“We don’t know what will happen in the next nine or 10 days,” Pike said. “I hope things can get resolved so that we can have it running fully.”

Email: jwitham@stgnews.com

Twitter: @STGnews