Yosemite Park Employees Argue
Valley Plan Will Hurt Them, Visitors

by Mike Conway
The Fresno Bee - June 30, 2000

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK - Concession workers and management agree the Yosemite Valley Plan proposed by the National Park Service needs to go back to the drawing board.

The union held a rally Thursday afternoon in Curry Village to encourage the 1,300 members in the park to comment on the plan to the Park Service.

"We believe it's going to be very costly to taxpayers and a huge burden on employees," said Lisa Edelheit, a field representative for the Service Employees International Union 535.

Added Susan Arthur, public relations manager for Yosemite Concession Services Corp.: "We are in agreement with the union that we need to have one, unified management plan for the park that balances the visitor experience with park resources. But this one needs work."

Employees and their bosses see problems with Alternative 2, the Park Service's preferred option for redesigning the heavily visited Yosemite Valley floor. Among the concerns:

  • Moving concession workers' residences out of the valley to El Portal or Wawona, causing them to commute from 30 minutes to more than an hour.

  • Closing the medical clinic in the valley, meaning patients with minor injuries must drive more than an hour to Mariposa and those with serious injuries must be flown to Modesto or Fresno.

  • Closing the historic stables that provide access to the mountains for the elderly, the very young and the disabled.

  • Reducing the overnight accommodations within the park, including the Housekeeping Camp tent cabins, campsites and other lodging. Before the 1997 flood, there were 1,510 rooms in the valley. The Park Service wants to cap it at 981. The 833 campsites before the flood would drop to 466 under Alternative 2.

Closing the Yosemite Medical Clinic scares some of the employees. Ken Wood said the closure would limit the number of senior citizens and disabled who feel secure coming to Yosemite.

"If they move it out, we would have to medivac people out of here," Wood said. "It's $11,000 for a helicopter out of the valley. At least that's what mine cost." Using air ambulances is not a rarity.

"We had four helicopters in yesterday," said clinic worker Rayma Torlano. "On a typical summer day we see up to 60 patients," she said. "That's everything from a sore throat to a cardiac arrest."