Great Smoky Mountains 'Parking Fee' is a Farce to Federal Law

Beginning yesterday, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) enacted a 'Parking Fee' on all cars visiting the park, which park for more than 15 minutes at any one location.  To steal a concept from Shakespeare, 'A Toll by any other name would still Stink.'  

A federal law (1994 {1964} U.S. Code Title 16) prevented the NPS from charging entrance fees where tolls are prohibited on primary park roads. Because Newfound Gap Road and Little River Road are the primary roads in GSMNP, we are, to this day, unable to charge an entrance fee. [Source: Why No Entrance Fee? - Great Smoky Mountains National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) ]

The GSMNP is the highest visited park in the country (12,937,633 visitors in 2022); more than doubling the visitors to the Grand Canyon (4,732,101), and tripling visitors to either Yosemite (3,667,550), or Yellowstone (3,290,242). (STATS - Welcome to Visitor Use Statistics (nps.gov).  GSMNP receives less than $20 million dollars annually from tax-payer support and about $4 million from park partners such as the Great Smoky Mountains Association, Friends of the Smokies, the Tremont Institute, and Discover Life in America.  That is less than $1.90 per person that visits the park each year.  

The NPS has never seemed to be able to find enough money to offer the services and upkeep that is necessary to a park that entertains that many people annually.  In the 1980's, the NPS turned down an offer from the residents of Elkmont to extend their individual leases (on less than 50 acres of land).  The impact on the environment of these residences to the Park would be considered negligible, but the National Park Service bowed to pressure from the Sierra Club and other environmental groups and refused the economic support.  [ The Curious Case of Elkmont, Tennessee: The Ghost Town of the Smoky Mountains (tnmuseum.org) ]

The GSMNP at one point took out all of the trash cans around the Cades Cove loop, because, according to a ranger I spoke to, it was deemed too expensive to service them.  

The problem for locals is that we represent a high percentage of 'visits' to the park each year and if we buy an annual tag for $40 it only covers one car.  That means that to cover each car in our family it could cost more than $120 annually.  While visitors from other states who come for the day, or a week, are only going to pay $5-15 depending on their stay.

This is yet another example of a federal entity bending the rules to subjecate the law in their favor.  Our Tennessee representatives need to step up and protect the rights of Tennesseans access to the park; access that is not fettered in fees that would pay for services our tax dollars should be accomplishing.

A fee for parking, in lieu of an admission fee, is government over-reach in triplicate.

Here are some tips directly from the NPS website (Seniors Take Note):

Parking Tag Basics

·      -Three tag durations are available for purchase for all vehicle sizes and types:

o   Daily - $5

o   Weekly - $15

o   Annual - $40

·  -Parking tags are not replaceable, refundable, transferable, or upgradable.

· -Each tag is valid for a single vehicle and must include a license plate number matching the vehicle in which it is displayed.

· -Parking tags are available for purchase both online and onsite.

· -Display of physical parking tags in each vehicle is required.  Digital representations are not accepted.

· -Parking tags are not location specific.  A parking tag is required to park anywhere within the boundaries of the Smokies.

· - Parking tags are not required for motorists who pass through the area or who park for less than 15 minutes.

· -Interagency passes (senior, access, etc.) are not accepted in lieu of a parking tag.

What Should Happen After Covid-19?

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We are beginning to see Covid-19 cases drop way down in both numbers and severity as municipalities open back up following government enforced shutdowns.  So, where should we go from here?

1) Property taxes should be pro-rated for 2020- All property taxes should be pro-rated based on Covid-19 shutdowns.  Residential property taxes should be pro-rated and business/commercial property taxes should be pro-rated based on the length of time they were under a mandatory shut down notice.  If they were under a mandatory shut-down, then they should not have to pay property taxes or rent during that time period. Period.  They were denied access to the business/property for the purpose for which it was designed and taxed.  This is a not open to debate and there should be massive lawsuits if counties do not automatically implement this procedure.

2) Mandatory year-round school should be taken off the table- For years we have seen the school system inch closer and closer to a year-round calendar.  Governor Bill Lee mandated that all public primary and intermediate schools be closed by March 20th and they did not re-open for the school season.  This means that children missed 9 or 10 weeks of their regular school session and then started summer break not to resume until the start of the new calendar year in August.  However, all students will advance to the next grade level and all seniors graduated in the Spring of 2020.  This should forever put to rest the idea that students cannot retain what they have learned in the previous year, without going to a year-round school calendar.  This was always a policy not supported by the data, but rather to solve some other problem, most likely the need for year-round meals for at risk children.  I do not suggest that we suspend meals for at risk kids, but to say that all kids need year-round school is hijacking the system for other purposes.  Kids benefit in learning through other means than school.  Summer jobs, internships, work study programs, and apprenticeships are all ways that our youth can learn from environments other than a classroom.  What could be beneficial is to bring back summer school alternatives for at risk children so that they may not only receive meals throughout the year but continue to receive additional classroom training that will help them not only move into the next grade but do so while excelling at their schoolwork.

3) No government employee should receive pay without producing equal work- Schools were closed, government offices were on reduced schedules, state parks were closed, and many other government workers were not doing the work for which they were hired during the pandemic.  If the Governor of the State of Tennessee implements any type of work restrictions on the public, then all government personnel (other than law enforcement) should receive and be burdened with the same economic impact that applies to residents of the state.  Imagine if DMV personnel had to rely on tips like waiters and waitresses in a restaurant or bar.  Just think about that sentence one more time, "What if DMV personnel where paid $2.12 an hour and benefits, but the rest of their income came from tips from customers?"  So immediately any government employee is going to cry foul and say, "You don't understand what we have to deal with?"  You tell that to servers who see every kind of abuse and obnoxious customer that exists.  If state employees had to lose some of their pay during the shutdown, then the governor would think twice before pulling that option out of the hat.  

I don't deny that Covid-19 was an unknown in late January and February, but the numbers were not bearing out the continued shut-down into March and beyond.  Yet the government continued to restrict people's opportunity to make a living; at the same time paying full benefits and pay to most government workers.  FIGHT BACK.  Do not put anybody back into state elected office that was there this year. 

This blog is the opinion of the writer and is published as editorial comment.

UT Chancellor Should Be All VOL

UT Chancellor Should Be All VOL

I have watched the search process for a new UT Knoxville Chancellor with excited anticipation at the possibilities that could occur.  I now fear that I will only be disappointed with the choice being made by a professional head hunter group.

Nowhere in the list of candidates that has been released has there been a graduate of UTK.  Now many people will tell you that it is more important to find someone with the proper academic qualifications and a past history of teaching, fund-raising, and management experience to take the reins at the Knoxville Campus. To them I would say we have tried that and the results were abysmal.

UT Knoxville needs a leader who has gone through the UT Knoxville experience as a student if he/she is to relate to the students on campus.  We need a leader that understands the inter-relationship of the campus with the City of Knoxville, the farmers in Tennessee, the business community, and the Oak Ridge laboratory.

The news reports and press conferences that I have seen show UT Knoxville bringing in candidates to meet with faculty and staff, maintenance workers, and student representatives.  What is the purpose of having a search committee if they are just going to gauge public response and pick the least objectionable candidate?

UTK needs leadership and needs a strong presence as the head of the University.  My fear is that they are looking for a mouthpiece and a PR manager.  What we need is the next Andy Holt, Ed Boling, or Jack Reese.  For now, the Alumni wait to see.

Shouldn't Everyone be Rated?

Someone recently reminded me of an old joke that goes like this: What do you call the person that graduated last in their class from Medical School? The Answer: Doctor.

We have a news program in town that goes around and looks at restaurants with particular attention paid to their Health Inspection rating. They point out those establishments that didn’t make the grade and why. I have noticed recently that they also point out those that scored exceptionally high in their inspection. One guy in my office used to always point out which restaurants had the worst score that week, saying, “Don’t go there.”

It seems to make sense to me that after a bad score is reported would be just the time to go there. Isn’t the purpose of an inspection to correct the problems? Do you think the manager, or owner, just says, “Whatever?” So why do we look only at restaurants?

Wouldn’t you like to see a rating on other businesses that are inspected? What other businesses are inspected? I know that Hair Salons/Barber Shops are inspected. Do they fair well? What about meat packing/processing companies? The butcher at the grocery, I bet they have inspections.

We could post numbers outside of the building “Rating this Week: 84.” You could just keep driving down the road until you came to a really high score. I ate at a very popular restaurant many years ago and had a roach crawl across my table. As I got up to pay the bill, I expressed my concern to the owner. He responded politely, “Yeah, they sprayed last night.” Shouldn’t that receive a number outside the building?

If we are really so concerned about ratings shouldn’t we know where our Doctor finished in school?

This blog is for entertainment purposes only and is the opinion of the writer. If any names were used, it was only as a reference point and no harm was intended.