325 Talawanda Street

Oxford, Ohio

November 8th 2010

Governor’s Office

Riffe Center, 30th Floor

77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6108

Dear Mr. Strickland,

I would like a moment of your time to talk to you about a pressing issue that may soon affect
Ohio’s environments and it’s residents. As of right now, the majority of our national parks around the
nation are federally owned. The parks are one of the things our nation is most proud of. But how can we
pride ourselves with a park system that is failing due to lack of not only funding and work force, but also
from lack of attention from the people running it, the Dept. of Interior. As one of the millions of park
lovers and patrons of the parks who go with families and friends to experience pure, untouched
wilderness, I speak for our group when I say there needs to be changes.

I am writing you today to urge you to submit a bill to hold elections all over the country for
privately managed parks. Each state would have a representative who would manage that state’s parks.
As of now, federally controlled parks aren’t working and are failing. Also, the government isn’t being
wise with park service money…

 $2 million to refurbish the Boston Public Library--a building that has nothing to do with any

national park;

 $3.3 million to build the National Center for Preservation Technology in Louisiana--also not a

Park Service project;

 $2 million to build a pedestrian walk near Tacoma, Washington;

 $2.1 million to renovate the home of Thomas Stone, a signer of the Declaration of Independence

known mainly for saying nothing at the First Continental Congress. Although nearly twenty years

old, the park receives less than 10 visitors per day who average less than a half-hour each
 The number of rangers available to manage and protect parks declined by nearly 25% between

1987 and 1990 while representative Joseph McDade was diverting about 8 million dollars per

year of Park Service funds to Steamtown, a site that Congress hasn’t even approved yet to be

part of the park system.

 California is in danger of losing its parks all together, due to their increasing debt. If this were to

happen, California would lose 80% of its coastline as protected space. \

There is a solution Mr. Strickland. Privatizing the parks would solve the problem of one agency,

the government, of controlling all parks around the nation. People like Warren Meyer are

already doing this, although through the government, and being successful at it. The

government-private hybrid style of management is the kind that doesn’t allow for enough

attention to the parks and is actually leading to their downfall. Total privatization of the parks is

how we can extract revenue, enough to run park and also even pay subsidiaries back to the

government, although some supporters would like to see the parks keeping all the money.

People Like Warren could privatize the national parks by having individual elections. He has even

claimed he will pay back the government. Warren Meyer is a candidate for running Arizona’s

national parks, which has about nine open right now. He already manages over 150 parks across

the US, and they are running in a high quality manner and keep them open. He makes money

solely by entrance fees and rents for coming into the parks and using their equipment. He

doesn’t take any government subsidiaries. Warren is the kind of example of the people we need

running our parks.

The fact remains sir is that people all around the nation value our parks greatly.

Protecting so much land is one of the staples of our American culture. Again, I urge you to

propose privatization of national park system by holding state-wide and independent elections.
Privatized parks are protected from economic downfall of government, please make the right

decision.

Thank you so very much for your time and I look forward to seeing you in the future,

William Crown