Critics bristle over plan for historic Park Service building

Agency’s employees, retirees fear consolidation of workers at site will damage landmark

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican

12/25/2007 - 12/22/07

The National Park Service plans to cut its staff in Santa Fe by a quarter, leave its leased building on the south end of town and consolidate its remaining 70 Santa Fe employees in its historic building on Old Santa Fe Trail.

But the Park Service strongly disputes allegations by some Santa Fe employees and retirees that the federal agency will damage the building by putting too many employees there, that it is removing the building's valuable artifacts or that it plans to close Santa Fe operations altogether.

J.W. "Bill" Wade, chairman of the executive council of the Coalition of Retired National Park Service Employees, recently wrote National Park Service Director Mary Bomar to say the plan for changes in the Old Santa Fe Trail building "is no less than vandalism."

"The central thing at work here is this callous disregard for a national historic landmark, a nationally significant historic resource that is also so important to the heritage of the National Park Service itself," said Dave Clary, a member of the coalition who lives in Roswell.

Alberto Duran, facilities manager in Santa Fe for 20 years, said putting too many people in the old building could damage it. "People are like cattle," he said. "You put cattle in a small pen, and they're going to tear the hell out of it."

Like other Santa Fe park service employees, Duran fears the changes will lead to the agency closing the Santa Fe operations altogether.

But Karen Breslin, a spokeswoman for the Inter-mountain Region, said speculation about the demise of the Santa Fe office has circulated since the regional headquarters moved from Santa Fe to Denver in 1995. "There are no plans in the offing to do anything like that," she said.

Over the last decade, the number of regional employees in both Santa Fe and Denver has declined from 600 to 300 because of budget restraints. By next fall, the number of Santa Fe employees will be reduced by 28 from about 100 through relocations, early retirements and buyouts, Breslin said. "Anytime any changes are made that affects the number of people in Santa Fe, it ignites the fears that the Park Service is going to pull out of Santa Fe entirely," she said.

Breslin said the region's cultural-resources and trails programs will remain in Santa Fe, but its information-technologies and submerged-cultural-resources programs might move to Denver or elsewhere. Some cultural-resource employees could be transferred to Denver or Flagstaff, Ariz., while a few Denver employees come to Santa Fe, she said.

The National Park Service plans to move all its employees out of the Paisano Building at 2968 Rodeo Park Drive West, which is leased for $960,000 a year, and into its 68-year-old building at 1100 Old Santa Fe Trail.

Breslin said about 90 employees will be in the old building short-term before the staff is reduced to about 70. Currently, she said, only 24 people are working in the old building, which has held up to 90 in the past and could hold a maximum of 110.

"A building that's fully utilized stands a better chance of being preserved than a building that is less than well-utilized," she said. "This would simply be sort of returning the building back to its historical use. One would think that preservationists would be supportive of that end."

Breslin said the Park Service is consulting with the state Historic Preservation Division about how to "reinvigorate that building as an office building and do so in a way that is sensitive to its historic properties."

Breslin also denied charges by Wade and others that internal walls in the old building might have to be altered and some of its custom-made artworks and furniture removed to accommodate the new staffing. She said the only "grain of truth" to this charge is that three paintings that were deteriorating because of improper lighting and mounting have been removed and replaced by reproductions.

She said $150,000 has been budgeted for upgraded security, fire suppression and preservation of artifacts in the old building.

"We love that building," she said. "Our agency is charged with protecting national historic landmarks. It's what we do. We give advice to people about how to do it. So the allegation that we would undertake these changes without being concerned about that is disconcerting."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.