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Posted By Admin on June 30, 2011

UPPER MERION A keen observer might notice Jim Gerlach and his wife, Karen, biking the Schuylkill River Trail at Valley Forge at any given time, but the Congressman said that luxury is often taken for granted.

Gerlach (R-6th, of Pennsylvania) joined several notables from the National Parks Conservation Association for a breakfast reception to celebrate the national parks in the Philadelphia region at the Valley Forge Visitors Center Monday morning.

He touted the work of the organizations responsible for preserving the parks and vowed to champion the cause on Capitol Hill.

These are national treasures, theres no question about that, said Gerlach. If we look at that as our long-term mission together, we have a lot of good things to work on. While budgets will ebb and flow, to some degree, over that time frame, I think we have a lot to work on.

Gerlach said he has seen some success in securing funding for national historic parks, which currently operates on a $600 million annual budget shortfall.

The House has passed two appropriations bills along to the Senate one for agriculture, one for military construction and veterans affairs funding but the bill for the Department of the Interior, which contains the funding for the national parks service, should be forthcoming in the next month or so.

If it looks anything like the other appropriations bills, there will be some cuts in funding overall to that appropriations bill, and I think thats the difficulty of the situation that were in with our economy, with our unemployment rate and our spending situation, said Gerlach. But I think we can all agree that while we hit some tough spots every now and then, were going to come through that and continue making sure that resources like Valley Forge, the Heritage Area and Hopewell Furnace continue to thrive and be accessible to people in this region.

Representatives from the Schuylkill River National amp; State Heritage Area and the Friends of Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site were on hand to offer their remarks.

Jim Thorne, president of the Friends of Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, an 840-acre facility in Berks County, described the grounds as an interpretation of the history of iron-making in southeastern Pennsylvania. Continued…

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Categories: Funding
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