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Comments
It sounds as if the superintendent made a courageous decision here. It would have been easy, and perhaps without any immediate backlash, to have allowed the exhibit to proceed. Thanks for a decision that put the resource first.
This article, while fair, leaves out crucial information about Chaco's current management -- that is by combining the management of Chaco and Aztec at Aztec, there is literally nobody home at Chaco. The senior staff is not at the park;they are at Aztec, seventy five miles away. We can all discuss the financial issues facing the Service and wring our hands about the difficulties of managing our national patrimony but removing staff from an isolated park like Chaco means the resources are not being protected. You need people at the site observing and interacting with the resources on a daily basis. I know because I managed the park for seven and a half years and lived in the park. What has happened with park staffing since I left is tragic. Without people with knowledge and skills on site, the condition of the park's resources, including the museum, will continue to degrade.
I noticed what Barbara West mentioned on my visit to Chaco last spring. There was far less staff at the park and they were not as knowledgeable as staff I have dealt with in the past.
As a professional engineer who has dealt with HVAC systems for over 40 years, the requirements for museum quality systems has been well known to design professionals for several decades, though problems in new facilities are unfortunately not that uncommon. The usual method to correctly address the issues is to bring in a third party to review the design and installation to determine the root cause of the problem identify what is necessary to correct it, and if appropriate, at whose expense.
Good comments, Barbara and Robert. At least a good decision by the current superintendent should be a reasonable starting point.
As for staffing at Chaco, I wonder if the NPS is still operating the way it seemed to back when I was there. People were moved so frequently it seemed that one was just beginning to become competent in a job when it was transfer time again. As a result, we were pushed upward to greater responsibilities before we were really ready. The result was a lot of good people who were, frankly, not really solidly comptent in what we were trying to do.
Is that still a problem?
An obvious question: whom from the Park Service "signed off" as the original HVAC system was acquired, installed, tested, and certified as to meeting the contract specifications and performance requirements? Is this another instance of a systemic NPS problem with not having qualified NPS personnel, or enough qualified NPS personnel at the right time or right place overseeing and "accepting" construction contracts and services? Or was this a politically expedient decision to rush through acceptance of a improperly specified, acquired, installed, tested, and accepted contract to buttress an annual performance review and award? There seems to be some missing pieces to the portrayal of this dilemma - a local issue or emblematic of a larger organizational problem?
The exhibit, once the HVAC system is worked out, ABSOLUTELY should be at Chaco and not anywhere else! The drive in is part of the experience of getting to Chaco and I cannot wait to visit again. It was an amazing journey and an incredible visit. I am disheartened to hear of the staffing problems and was sorry to hear that resource staff is based at Aztec (also an amazing experience).