Home » News  Deal to open parks is good news, but real work
remains  Published October 11, 2013 10:16 am  It's good news,
but not enough  So this is what passes for progress. U.S.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has accepted Utah Gov. Gary
Herbert's offer to provide funding to keep Utah's national parks
open through the federal shutdown. It's still no way to run a
nation, but getting the parks open is a worthwhile goal.  State
and federal officials were working to finalize the deal, but it
appears the parks will open as soon as Friday. More negotiations
are under way with other states whose governors made similar
offers to loan the federal government the money to reopen parks.
It costs $60,000 per day for the National Park Service to
operate Utah's five national parks. And if this episode proves
anything, it's that the parks are a bargain. They clearly are a
cornerstone of Utah's tourism industry, which brings in more
than $20 million per day. For gateway towns like Springdale and
Moab, it literally keeps pe