John Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) The Washington Monument is in the midst of its second extended shutdown in the past month, due to chronic power and elevator problems, and DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton believes the continuing loss of the popular monument is going to negatively impact the D.C. tourism business.
“These chronic elevator closures will eventually tell a tale about the D.C. economy,” Norton told WMAL. “I have got to get to the bottom of these closures in the midst of the biggest part of the tourist season.”
The National Park Service announced last Friday that the Washington Monument would remain closed for at least 10 days after a series of failures forced sporadic closures, in some cases leaving tourists stranded at the top of the monument, and forcing them to use stairs to walk down more than 500 feet to ground level.
Norton says a continuing lack of funding for the National Park Service has caused the monument’s contiuning troubles, and she blames Congress for devoting little time and even less money to keep the nation’s parks in good shape.
“The Park Service is probably the most underfunded in the Congress, even though the Park Service handles land throughout the United States of America,” she says.
Norton has scheduled a meeting with National Park Service officials Wednesday to see whether things can be shaken up to stop the Washington Monument’s cycle of shutdowns.
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