Norton Hopes Tour of National Park Service Parks on Mon Will Yield Greater Federal Funding (10/4/09)

Norton Hopes Tour of National Park Service Parks Monday Will Yield Greater Federal Attention and Funding

October 4, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC - Thanks to a new administration that appears to have heard her pleas for funding for the District's parks under federal jurisdiction, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) tomorrow, Mon. Oct. 5, will join National Park Service officials on a tour of nine federally-owned parks in the District. Norton will offer brief remarks at 10:30 a.m. in Anacostia Park at 1900 Anacostia Drive, SE, and will tour parks throughout the city, including the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, and Fort DuPont Park, where they will stop for lunch. The tour will proceed to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Northeast, and several Capitol Hill area parks including Stanton, Folger, and Lincoln parks, and then proceed to the Carter G. Woodson Home, which is being restored because of a Norton bill. The tour will end at the Bethune Council House.

After touring NPS parks in each of the city's eight wards last year, Norton released a report detailing repairs and improvements that were needed to restore neighborhood parks. Earlier this year she worked with appropriators to help secure $135 million in the stimulus bill for use here. "Stimulus funds can and should be used to begin the repair of our local parks that serve tourists and residents alike," Norton said. The Congresswoman's report, "Arresting the Deterioration in the Valuable National Park Service Neighborhood Parks in the District of Columbia," showed that repairs, improvements, benches, picnic tables and play equipment are needed following many years of neglect when NPS has been underfunded.