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C&O Park needs money for upkeep

May 23rd, 2015 by WCBC Radio

The Cumberland Times News reports the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is one example of a park system strapped for cash with a growing backlog of upkeep needs leading to what one advocacy group describes as parks with crumbling trails, leaking roofs and water systems, and decaying campgrounds. What’s especially troubling at the C&O Canal park is that more than 1,300 historical structures are in the 184.5­mile park, with a full­time maintenence staff of only 25 people to care for the trails and the buildings, said Edward Stierli, a field representative for the Chesapeake & Virginia Program of the National Parks Conservation Association. The structures include aqueducts, lock houses and other buildings, nearly 5 percent of all the structures in the National Park Service.

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