Politics & Government

Leggett: If NPS Doesn't Open Glen Echo Park, Montgomery County Will

The county estimates that the nonprofit organizations running programs and facilities in Glen Echo Park—a national park—are losing a total of $25,000 a day during the federal government shutdown

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett said that if the National Park Service did not reopen Glen Echo Park by Thursday, the county would do it Friday.

"All the National Park Service does at Glen Echo is grounds maintenance, trash collection and provide security," Leggett said in a news release Tuesday. "If the National Park Service will open Glen Echo, Montgomery County will provide these services until the government shutdown ends."

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The national park, whose arts and cultural programs receive no federal funds, offers many programs and facilities managed and operated by a private nonprofit organization Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture. The partnership was created in 2002 by Montgomery County, according to a news release from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.

The partnership and its nonprofit partners—which include the Adventure Theatre Musical Theater Centerthe Puppet Co., dance organizations and visual artists—have been barred from entering the park and cannot retrieve their property or collect their mail. 

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According to the Glen Echo Partnership, the negative impact to their organizations is amounting to losses of approximately $25,000 a day.

The county's arts and humanities council said the Glen Echo Park Partnership and its resident arts organizations and other partners have already lost more than $250,000 and stood to lose much more if the shutdown continued.


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