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Thousands Push Minnewaska To Stay Open - 8 March, 2010
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By John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record
Posted: March 08, 2010 - 2:00 AM
Gardiner — New Yorkers love The Ridge.
Less than two weeks after a second list of potential park closures was announced, residents of the Hudson Valley have begun mobilizing in force against shuttering their favorite outdoor public recreation sites.
"Save Minnewaska," a Facebook group dedicated to organizing and educating people about the potential closures, jumped from just a few hundred members on the first day to more than 9,900 members as of Sunday.
"At one point, there were 200 members joining every hour; it really went viral," said Tim Hunter, a communications consultant and member of the Town of Gardiner Open Space Commission, who created the group.
Response to the virtual campaign could signal significant grass-roots opposition to the state's plans to shut or scale back operations at numerous state parks, including several popular destinations in the Hudson Valley. Gov. David Paterson's administration has proposed closing an additional 53 state parks, in addition to the initial 55 proposed by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, as a way to fill a $9 billion budget gap projected for next year. Operations would be scaled back at another 23 locations.
The second list, which includes Minnewaska State Park and parts of Harriman State Park, would be applied if $5 million of the state's environmental protection fund cannot be used to prevent the closures, according to the Paterson administration.
Hunter contends that the proposed savings, which make up only a fraction of a percent of the state's budget, would be a huge mistake.
He says the park closures would devastate the tourism industry in places such as Gardiner and New Paltz, which benefit from the hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to places such as nearby Minnewaska.
Though visitor fees at the park generate only $400,000 per year toward its $1.2 million budget, many of its regular users are also state-park pass holders, and sales revenue from the passes are not accounted for in the overall profit figures, Hunter said.
The impact of the park's closure on the local tourism industry would run into the millions, far exceeding its potential savings to the state, Hunter added.
"Minnewaska's closure would have terrible negative economic consequences for Ulster County," he said.
The scale of opposition to the closures will move from the virtual to the real world in the weeks ahead, when grass-roots organizers will be scheduling "Save Minnewaska" rallies in New Paltz, Hunter added.
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