Parks Panel redrafting recommendations

Daniel Barrack reports in the Concord Monitor that the committee looking to fix the state parks system is moving on to other ideas after their last trial balloon to sell off some state properties was shot down:

But the committee's members underscored the "conundrum" at the heart of New Hampshire's public parks system. The parks receive no money from the state other than fees from visitors, but those fees fall far short of what's needed to maintain the nearly 70 sites in the system. And while the parks preserve the state's most treasured natural and historic areas, park administrators are encouraged to run the system as a business in order to make as much money as possible from the sites.

Richard Ober, chairman of the state parks advisory council, which is working with the Department of Resources and Economic Development to craft the plan, said the problems with the draft proposal issued last month shouldn't obscure the dire situation that New Hampshire's parks find themselves in. (more)