A very good article in the today’s Indy Star by Tammy Webber entitled Private owners may get control of park lodges. The article discusses DNR’s consideration of whether to sell the six lodges (all built before 1940), in state parks to private entities or, alternatively, to allow them to be managed by private companies.
This is part of DNR Director Kyle Hupfer, he of the youthful good looks, to streamline the agency. Indiana lodges netted $583,000 in the 2004-05 budget year, Hupfer said. State officials say they have not tried to estimate the lodges’ value on the open market.
The reason I enjoyed the article so much is that Ms. Webber went out of her way to take a look at other states’ experience with similar privatization. Ohio says that turning the operation duties over to private companies has been profitable but that it would not sell the properties outright. Alabama, on the other hand, had a bad experience. The state park supervisor there blamed shoddy contracts with no penalties for violations.
I suppose I wouldn’t mind private operations overly much with proper contracts in place. Selling the properties would just be horribly short-sighted. State parks are part of a legacy for future generations. We have a responsibility to pass along natural resources in tact to our children, grandchildren, etc. Our parents and grandparents managed to maintain and build the state parks and the state lodges. For us to leave less of a heritage to our children is for us to be less capable than our forebearers. (And, as always, it bears mentioning that privatizing doesn’t always save money.)
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