Lawmakers' elimination of more than $5 million earmarked for a new Zion National Park shuttle system threat-ens to delay the project by at least a year.
The U.S. House deleted the funding from the $12.3 billion Interior Department fiscal 1997 spending bill after it became clear that Zion officials were not ready to proceed with the next phase of construction, a House Interior Committee aide said."Zion officials weren't quite ready to proceed, so we asked the chairman to postpone the funding until next year," said Bill Sim-mons, an aide to Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah.
Simmons said Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, the House Interior Committee's chairman, strongly supports funding the transportation system and has agreed to appropriate the $5.1 million when National Park Service officials are ready to move forward.
Park workers are worried about a delay but "have got our fingers crossed" that the funds will be put back before the budget is passed, said Zion Superintendent Don Falvey.
The House passed the fiscal 1997 spending bill June 20 by a 242-174 vote. The measure now heads to the Senate.
The park has received $5.2 million this year to start the system, which is aimed at relieving congestion by shuttling visitors into upper Zion Canyon. Work to be covered by the funds includes redesigning the Watchman campground to make way for a parking lot there for visitors looking to catch buses at the transit center, Falvey said.
The budget standoff in Washington meant the park received the funds late, Falvey said. Now the park is holding off on this year's work until fall, after the peak season, to avoid fouling up visitors' camping plans, he added.
The funds being held up would pay for shuttle stops and a bus maintenance-emergency services building. The park hopes to buy the buses, the last stage in the project, with more appropriated funds in 1998 and have them ready in 1999.
The park is working with officials from the state, Springdale and the Zion Natural History Association on the roughly $16 million plans.