    [Senate Hearing 115-532]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                         S. Hrg. 115-532

              CHALLENGES IN GATEWAY COMMUNITIES OF NATIONAL PARKS

    =======================================================================

                                 FIELD HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                                SUBCOMMITTEE ON
                                 NATIONAL PARKS

                                     OF THE

                                  COMMITTEE ON
                          ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                         ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                                   __________

                                OCTOBER 19, 2018

                                   __________

                           Printed for the use of the
                   Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

            Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                                   __________

                        U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
    32-538                      WASHINGTON : 2019

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                   COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

                        LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Chairman
    JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming               MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
    JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho                RON WYDEN, Oregon
    MIKE LEE, Utah                       BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
    JEFF FLAKE, Arizona                  DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan
    STEVE DAINES, Montana                JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia
    CORY GARDNER, Colorado               MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico
    LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee           MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
    JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota            ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine
    BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana              TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
    ROB PORTMAN, Ohio                    CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
    SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia  TINA SMITH, Minnesota
                                     ------

                         Subcommittee on National Parks

                             STEVE DAINES, Chairman

    JOHN BARRASSO                        ANGUS S. KING, JR.
    MIKE LEE                             BERNARD SANDERS
    CORY GARDNER                         DEBBIE STABENOW
    LAMAR ALEXANDER                      MARTIN HEINRICH
    JOHN HOEVEN                          MAZIE K. HIRONO
    ROB PORTMAN                          TAMMY DUCKWORTH

                          Brian Hughes, Staff Director
                         Kellie Donnelly, Chief Counsel
                    Michelle Lane, Professional Staff Member
                 Mary Louise Wagner, Democratic Staff Director
                    Sam E. Fowler, Democratic Chief Counsel
                    David Brooks, Democratic General Counsel

                               C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------

                               OPENING STATEMENT

                                                                       Page
    Daines, Hon. Steve, Subcommittee Chairman and a U.S. Senator from
      Montana........................................................     1

                                   WITNESSES

    Sholly, Cameron, Superintendent, Yellowstone National Park,
      National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.........     4
    Baltzley, Patricia, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Gardiner
      Public Schools.................................................    10
    Costello, Marysue, Director, West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce    17
    Purvis, Deb, President, Cooke City Park County Water District....    23
    Sacca II, Richard Anthony, Emergency Manager, Office of Emergency
      Management, Flathead County, Montana...........................    31

              ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

    Baltzley, Patricia:
        Opening Statement............................................    10
        Written Testimony............................................    13
    Berg, Bill:
        Statement for the Record.....................................    53
    Costello, Marysue:
        Opening Statement............................................    17
        Written Testimony............................................    19
    Daines, Hon. Steve:
        Opening Statement............................................     1
    Purvis, Deb:
        Opening Statement............................................    23
        Written Testimony............................................    25
    Sacca II, Richard Anthony:
        Opening Statement............................................    31
        Written Testimony............................................    33
    Sholly, Cameron:
        Opening Statement............................................     4
        Written Testimony............................................     7

              CHALLENGES IN GATEWAY COMMUNITIES OF NATIONAL PARKS

                                  ----------

                            FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018

                                   U.S. Senate,
                        Subcommittee on National Parks,
                     Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
                                                     Gardiner, Montana.
        The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:05 a.m. in
    the Multipurpose Room, Gardiner Public School, 510 Stone
    Street, Gardiner, Montana, Hon. Steve Daines, presiding.

                OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. STEVE DAINES,
                       U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA

        Senator Daines [presiding]. The Subcommittee will come to
    order.
        I would first like to thank everyone for joining us here on
    this absolutely beautiful day in Montana. I want to extend my
    special appreciation to Randy Russell, the school's
    Superintendent, who could not be here today. Also to Mike Baer,
    the Principal, Mike LaPage, the Custodian, as well as Tom
    Nelson, who I just chatted with, who is the head of
    Maintenance, all of whom are here today and have helped make
    today's event possible.
        Today is a very special day because we are bringing the
    official work of the United States Senate right here to
    Gardiner, Montana. This is a great opportunity for kids of all
    ages. I know we have a few in the audience. But I am also very
    aware of the fact, as a father of four children who were raised
    here in Montana, that it is a special holiday week.
        I know in the Daines' household growing up that oftentimes
    meant going hunting somewhere in Montana, usually antelope
    hunting this time of year. So I know we have a lot of kids who
    are out there enjoying being outside, which is actually a good
    place for young people to be on a day like today.
        But this is a great opportunity for kids of all ages
    because whether you attend school here or if, like one of our
    witnesses, you grew up here, you get to gain appreciation for
    how the Federal Government works.
        We are here today in this great school, sitting literally
    minutes away from the only year-round entrance to Yellowstone
    National Park. Most people in Washington, DC, and other places
    around the United States dream of visiting Yellowstone maybe
    once in their lifetime. But that isn't news to this room when
    you have the luxury of living in this great town, it is such a
    special place. You also experience the unique challenges that
    come when everybody else, literally the entire world, wants to
    experience this magic place as well.
        I have a lot of memories of being right here in Gardiner as
    a kid. I have memories of taking the Buick station wagon with
    the wood veneer siding on it, a Griswold kind of station wagon,
    and asking permission from my dad if, for our senior prom, I
    could come down to Chico for prom, back in 1979.
        But I think of all the countless times that we would load
    up the car and come down to Yellowstone Park and this very
    special part of our nation as a kid whose parents moved to
    Bozeman back in 1964. So this really is home in many ways.
        It is such an honor to be here. This is called a hearing.
    It is meant to hear, that is why it is called a hearing. We
    will have some great witnesses here that I will introduce in a
    minute.
        We are here to talk about the fact that--the secret about
    this special place is out. A lot of people are visiting our
    national parks and, particularly, Yellowstone National Park.
        What does that mean? Well, that can be a very good thing.
    For starters, visitors to Montana spent $3.2 billion in 2017
    and much of that was near our national parks. In fact, we know
    they spent about $275 million in Glacier National Park and
    about $500 million in Yellowstone and the surrounding areas
    last year, according to the National Park Service (NPS). So
    this increase in spending can certainly lead to more jobs,
    which is good news for our gateway communities.
        However, all this increase in spending means one thing--we
    are seeing more visitors to our parks. Don't get me wrong, I
    know at times we like to keep our secret hunting and fishing
    places secret and our secret hiking places secret. You are
    looking at a Senator who likes to spend a lot of time hiking
    miles and miles in the backcountry here, not too far from where
    we are seated.
        I love seeing people coming to Montana and I love the fact
    that they visit our national parks, especially our parks right
    here in Montana. But I chair the National Parks Subcommittee,
    so I am very honored with what I consider my home parks,
    Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park, as a
    Montanan. I also realize with increased visitation comes some
    strain. Just like we talk about deferred maintenance inside the
    parks themselves, the increase in visitation can strain
    resources in gateway communities as well. I know our witnesses
    today are here to talk more about the specifics, everything
    from responding to fires, to just the pavement on the streets,
    the sidewalk in front of the fly shop, the increase in traffic
    and so forth and just overall wear and tear.
        In addition to routine infrastructure needs, it is my
    understanding that the very school we are sitting in faces a
    fairly unique funding challenge. We will hear more about that
    issue from our witnesses, but I would like to commit to working
    on that issue as we move forward.
        I would also like to speak to a related matter. In a
    business meeting in Washington, DC, just a few weeks ago, we
    had one of the most productive Energy and Natural Resources
    meetings in my six years in Washington, DC. We moved a
    tremendous amount of bills related to conservation, public
    lands and protecting our national parks that I had seen in a
    long time. In fact, we moved over 40 bills, 40. The news media
    did not pick a lot of that up.
        There were some good things going on in Washington, DC, in
    that Committee that day and some of them are related to Montana
    issues. One of those addressed was very relevant to why we are
    here today. We passed the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act
    that will permanently protect, for generations to come, the
    local economy that relies on tourism and outdoor recreation
    here. Secretary Zinke also recently acted to withdraw this same
    area from mineral entry, immediately protecting the special
    place for 20 years.
        All this shows the special balance Montana has between
    protecting the environment and supporting local economies. It
    also shows our commitment to protecting and strengthening our
    local economy driven by tourism and outdoor recreation, mostly
    due to neighboring Yellowstone. I remain committed to seeing
    this legislation pass both chambers of Congress.
        As a native Montanan I take great pride in iconic parks
    like Yellowstone and Glacier, but also in our state's lesser
    known national treasures such as the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National
    Historic Site just 50 miles north of Yellowstone and other
    wonderful sites like the Little Bighorn Battlefield.
        The National Park Service Centennial was a banner year with
    record-setting visitation numbers. As we continue to build upon
    that success, it is vital that we begin to plan for the future.
    You think about the visionaries that launched this, Teddy
    Roosevelt and others, that vision they had. We need to make
    sure that we set forward a process of funding mechanisms and
    plans that will protect that vision for years to come and not
    just for the parks themselves but for these critical gateway
    communities and the challenges they face outside the parks.
        Before I introduce the witnesses, I want to thank everyone
    who came out today. I will also just remind everyone about the
    format today. I will introduce everyone. Each witness will have
    five minutes to give their testimony. Following the testimony I
    will ask questions, during which time each witness will have up
    to five minutes to respond. Because we are not in Washington,
    DC, today, thank goodness----
        [Laughter.]
        ----I am not going to be too strict with the timer. But I
    do want to try to keep it reasonably close to that time limit.
    Once we finish up the questions I will gavel out the hearing.
        There are no questions from the audience in an official
    hearing. As a reminder, this is an official hearing of the
    United States Senate and everything said here today will be
    included in the official record, including my Griswold comment,
    is that right?
        [Someone in the background:] That's right.
        Senator Daines. Okay, now we will get to the witnesses.
        Joining us this afternoon is Mr. Cameron Sholly--I know he
    prefers to go by ``Cam''--the Superintendent of Yellowstone
    National Park. Day 2 on the job, Cam. Welcome.
        We have Ms. Pat Baltzley, Board of Trustees Chairman of the
    Gardiner Public Schools.
        We have Ms. Marysue Costello, Director of the West
    Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce.
        We have Ms. Deb Purvis, President, the Cooke City Water
    District, one of my favorite towns in Montana, by the way. It
    is true. I like Silver Gate, too. Cooke City is great.
        And Mr. Rick Sacca, Emergency Manager, Flathead County,
    Montana.
        We have some Glacier Park representation here as well and
    then we pretty much have Yellowstone National Park surrounded
    here with these gateway communities witnesses. I want to thank
    you all, again, for being here with us.
        At the end of your testimony, we will begin questions. Your
    full written testimony will be made part of the official
    hearing record.
        Mr. Sholly, welcome back, I should say. I know you grew up
    here in the Gardiner area, and we are really glad to have you
    back. I know that you have only been on the job, I guess, about
    48 hours here on the ground. We are glad you are back. When you
    are ready, please go ahead with your testimony.

             STATEMENT OF CAMERON SHOLLY, SUPERINTENDENT,
        YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, U.S.
                       DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

        Mr. Sholly. Thank you for that introduction, and it is
    fantastic to be here.
        As I mentioned outside, I think the last time I was in this
    building it was about 30 years ago. So it's special to be back
    with all of you.
        Thank you for holding this hearing today on such an
    important topic. Relationships with gateway communities is one
    of the most important things that we focus on in the National
    Park System, the National Park Service.
        I know how much you value, Senator, parks and public lands
    here in Montana and across the country. Thank you for your
    support. I look forward to working closely with you in this new
    capacity that I'm in.
        I really want to thank the witnesses for being here and
    giving us, especially me in the beginning of my second day,
    their insights and perspectives about how we can work best
    together, the issues that you're facing and how I can work and
    the team in Yellowstone can work collaboratively with you to
    address those issues.
        As you know, the National Park Service manages iconic
    resources in destinations that truly represent some of the very
    best that America has to offer. Our parks attract hundreds of
    millions of visitors each year and the communities adjacent to
    our parks are absolutely essential to helping provide our
    visitors important services, accommodations, food and beverage,
    gasoline, other amenities, all which help greatly improve and
    contribute to the visitor experience.
        Growing visitation at national parks is reflected in the
    vitality of these gateway communities, as you mentioned, not
    just here but across the country. And in 2017 visitors to our
    national parks in the U.S. spent over $18 billion in gateway
    communities. Annually, we estimate that Yellowstone visitors
    spent almost $500 million in local communities and support more
    than 7,000 jobs.
        National visitation has gone up by about 50 million just in
    the last four or five years. Here in Yellowstone, average
    annual visitation has jumped by about 40 percent from where it
    was just a decade ago. Near Gardiner, in West Yellowstone,
    vehicle traffic counts are up by 60 percent in that 10-year
    period. The entrance near Cooke City and Silver Gate is up 37
    percent, and the east entrance through Cody is up by almost 50
    percent.
        So as you mentioned, Senator, there are positives that come
    along with increased visitation levels. As you know, those
    increases have had a wide range of impacts on infrastructure
    and resources.
        The National Park Service has an existing deferred
    maintenance backlog of $11.6 billion across our entire system
    of which nearly $500 million is right here in Yellowstone. So
    we need to take aggressive actions to make infrastructure
    improvements across the system.
        As you know, and as you've mentioned, Chairman, Secretary
    Zinke has made it his highest legislative priority to establish
    a dedicated fund to address this backlog and we appreciate your
    co-sponsorship of Senate bill 3172 which would help really
    launch a multi-billion-dollar effort to rebuild park
    infrastructure--probably one of the most important things we
    can do now and one of the biggest challenges that we face
    moving forward.
        Wherever possible, it's important that we work together on
    actions that help maintain positive economic activity but also
    that we work together to lessen and mitigate threats to park
    resources and values and continue to do this while we improve
    visitor experiences. It's not just for the values and the
    experiences inside our boundaries, but also outside our
    boundaries and in and around these special gateway communities.
        Along those lines, also, very pleased with Secretary
    Zinke's recent announcement on the 20-year mineral withdrawal,
    just here north of Yellowstone. I think it's a highly
    commendable action. He recognized, along with Secretary Purdue,
    the importance of preserving the community's larger recreation,
    tourism and outdoor cultures. I really do think this is a very
    tangible example of a decision that helps us protect lands
    outside of the boundary that are closely connected to shared
    conservation and recreation values, especially in places like
    this that are in such close proximity to great places like
    Yellowstone.
        Although Gardiner and Mammoth are separated by five miles
    and a state line, they really do function as one community. Our
    employees who live in Mammoth rely on services provided in
    Gardiner and, similarly, residents that live in Gardiner rely
    on services provided in Mammoth--a medical clinic, preschool,
    the daycare.
        As we succeed together, we also face a lot of the same
    challenges. Affordable housing continues to be an issue. Like
    the park, the Gardiner school has substantial infrastructure
    needs. These challenges can make it difficult for Gardiner
    businesses, for our concession's operators in the park and for
    NPS operations to attract and retain employees with families.
        The NPS continually strives to improve the public's access
    to our national treasures; however, if visitation continues to
    increase, we must also increase our ability to collaborate with
    one another.
        Yellowstone, like other national parks, needs the
    perspectives of its partners to address both challenges and
    opportunities before us.
        Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement, and I'm happy to
    answer any questions you might have.
        Thank you again for holding this hearing.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Sholly follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Daines. Thank you, Superintendent Sholly.
        Just a comment on that $11.6 billion maintenance backlog.
    That was one of those 40 bills that was moved a couple weeks
    ago. It was such a great moment when we saw two Democratic
    senators, Mark Warner and Angus King, come together with two
    Republican senators, Lamar Alexander and Rob Portman on the
    committee that I chair, the National Parks Subcommittee, to
    move that bill through.
        Fights tend to sell more media and press in DC than getting
    something done. I can tell you we got something done and did
    not get a lot of press about it, but that is a great bill and
    it is not going to add to the deficit. We are going to,
    hopefully, get this passed here, maybe in the next couple of
    months in this lame duck session. I am hoping. That is my goal
    to get this done because as Angus King, who was a Governor of
    Maine and is now a Senator, said, ``deferred maintenance is
    debt.'' It really is and we need to deal with it.
        So hopefully we will have some better news for you here. A
    great way to start off your new job here in Yellowstone.
        Mr. Sholly. Thank you.
        Senator Daines. Alright, Ms. Baltzley.

    STATEMENT OF PATRICIA BALTZLEY, CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES,
                        GARDINER PUBLIC SCHOOLS

        Ms. Baltzley. Good morning, Senator Daines and others
    gathered, for this opportunity to share the challenges of
    gateway communities.
        My name is Pat Baltzley, and I am Chair of the School Board
    of Gardiner Schools. We welcome you to our school in this
    beautiful location surrounding us. We're lucky to be here.
        To begin with, this has been a tough stretch for our school
    district--arguably one of the most challenging in its history.
    We face severe budgetary constraints due to a change in
    financial structures, we face an infrastructure in need of
    maintenance due to aging, and we face declining enrollment due
    to a change in our community's housing situation. The impact of
    these factors has hit us hard as we've been a school district
    committed to providing the best educational experiences for our
    students. We are proud of the school district's commitment to
    excellence and to supporting a quality education for our
    students.
        Gardiner School has consistently been ranked as one of the
    top schools in the State of Montana. Recently the U.S. News and
    World Report once again rated Gardiner as the number one school
    in Montana.
        As an educator myself for over 40 years, having grown up in
    the Northern Virginia school system and having worked in
    several large school districts in Maryland, including Baltimore
    County, I've been so impressed with the quality of the teaching
    staff and the students in this small, unique community.
        There are some bright spots on the horizon that include a
    partnership with the newly created North Yellowstone Education
    Foundation, a rallying community support system and connections
    with other partners and support systems, but we are in a budget
    shortfall and still need help to stabilize.
        While the school district understands and acknowledges that
    the past financial benefit received from the Yellowstone
    National Park was unique to Gardiner, the change forced drastic
    changes to our educational programming. In the past, the school
    received money from the National Park Service for its students
    who attended school in Gardiner. This allowed the school to
    buildup a significant cash reserve and to spend liberally on
    programs, staff and resources. The NPS no longer provides this
    funding and the State of Wyoming has picked up, with your
    support if you remember, that responsibility for the students
    who reside inside the park in Wyoming.
        Because another state is now providing money for these
    students, Montana now deducts that amount from the funding they
    provide to Gardiner Schools. The money from Wyoming goes into
    Gardiner School's general fund, reducing local taxpayer funding
    obligations by nearly 50 percent while maintaining the general
    fund's maximum budget allowed by the state.
        Furthermore, and of great concern, is that Gardiner
    School's enrollment is falling--169 students are currently
    enrolled, K-12, as of this fall. When I came on the school
    board in 2013, there were close to 250. Enrollment during the
    last three years has been the first time the number of students
    has been below 200 in decades. Declining enrollment is a result
    of large-scale trends that face our community, including
    housing shortages, escalating real estate prices, transition of
    housing from family residents to vacation rentals and the
    changing hiring practices of the area's major employers. Fewer
    students equal less funding.
        With our changed financial situation and with declining
    enrollment, major changes were needed to balance our general
    fund budget. The school board had to make many tough decisions
    over this past year to bring the budget in balance. The school
    district was using 97 percent of its general fund budget for
    staffing costs compared to 80 to 85 percent for most other
    schools in Montana. This prompted the school board to
    investigate options to stabilize the budget and ensure the
    long-term sustainability of the school. We reduced our staff,
    the equivalent of 7.5 full-time employees which for a small
    school district has a huge impact. Most upsetting of all was
    having to make the changes that affected the lives of our
    friends, families, students and fellow community members.
        As with any aging infrastructure, one part of our building
    is over 50 years old with a newer section, built after fire in
    the 1980s, which is 30 years old. There's a need to ensure that
    our school environment is safe and healthy for our students.
    With this aging infrastructure and immediate maintenance
    concerns, the board has made some recent maintenance decisions
    with large financial impact.
        We completed a part of our roofing replacement project
    utilizing a 1-to-1 matching grant of $200,000 from the Gardiner
    Resort Tax that helped us replace a portion of our roof for
    $475,000. We still have another 35 percent to replace that is
    30 years old. This will be another significant cost.
        We have just begun a project to replace and repair our
    three aging boilers and our infrastructure system for our
    boilers. This project could cost the Gardiner School District
    close to $650,000. An application has been made to the Gardiner
    Resort Tax Board for $250,000 but more financial support is
    needed.
        We need help in stabilizing our financial structure so that
    we can continue to provide the quality of education that we
    have been able to provide in the past and that every student
    deserves. This means a stabilization of impact aid that we
    receive. If it gets reduced or eliminated entirely, then we
    would immediately need to reduce our staff further by about
    three more teachers, close to $160,000.
        The current method for quantifying the number of families
    that work in or near Yellowstone is inadequate as we have
    families that work in the park, although their offices are not
    inside the park boundaries which is a qualification for being
    factored into our impact aid funds.
        Gardiner Public Schools are in a great part dependent on
    public lands, and we are at the whim of global market forces.
    In order to maintain our community and school, we need help.
        The school district is working with the larger community to
    determine how as a community we can address the housing needs
    in a landlocked community surrounded by national and state
    land. Our school itself has part of its property on national
    park land. One of our questions is whether there is a
    possibility for exchange of national or state land to support
    the building of needed, affordable housing in our community.
        The school would like to take advantage of an opportunity
    through the National Park Restoration Act, U.S. Senate bill
    2509 or House bill 5210 or similar legislation for federal
    assistance in such a way that does not impact funding options
    for the park itself. We are involving our community in
    political advocacy through awareness of these bills and have
    circulated a petition to garner support for our position. We
    have gathered 840 signatures to this date in support of this
    bill.
        Your support in general to continue commitment to our
    national educational system, including financial support for
    aging infrastructures in the United States, as well as your
    support for our specific needs as a gateway community, is
    significant and needed.
        Thank you for this opportunity to share our challenging
    situation as we work to educate our students in this unique
    environment.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Baltzley follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Daines. Thank you very much.
        Ms. Costello.

       STATEMENT OF MARYSUE COSTELLO, DIRECTOR, WEST YELLOWSTONE
                          CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

        Ms. Costello. Honorable Senator Daines and other guests, I
    am pleased to be asked to present information to you today
    about gateway communities, national parks and the impacts faced
    by each, and full well knowing that each impacts the other.
        Gateway communities, such as those represented at this
    hearing, economically rely on tours and recreation and the
    environmental health that drives those activities. They are our
    lifeblood. Many, many things can affect that blood flow. Public
    policy, weather and natural events nearby and even worldwide
    can constrict or open the flow. Specifically, today I would
    like to talk about fires in national parks, dramatic increases
    in visitation and access.
        The item that gains the most notoriety is fires. They are
    dramatic, photogenic and alarming, and they go on for months.
    In recent years Yellowstone's gateway communities have gone
    through several iterations of impactful fires.
        Due, I believe, to the recognition that entities cannot
    work in isolation, there has been a significant shift to
    transparency and cooperation. Two summers ago, and again this
    summer, West Yellowstone has been directly affected by fires
    that encompassed both Forest Service and Park Service lands.
    Both Gardiner and Cooke City have had their share of challenges
    by fires too.
        Some citizens are of the opinion that all fires should be
    managed to be suppressed, while others are more accepting that
    fire is critical to the maintenance of healthy forests and will
    be a part of the landscape. Regardless of those positions, West
    Yellowstone has, especially in more recent years, experienced
    tremendous openness and cooperation from public agencies, and
    we are grateful. We feel our local representatives are included
    in the decision-making processes and we value, too, the joint
    participation in public meetings and information dissemination.
        Fires definitely have a price tag across a broad spectrum
    of resources: public, private sector and individual citizen.
    Balancing benefit to cost will always be challenging and we, as
    gateway communities, highly value the assurance that we will be
    contributors to the discussion and the decisions.
        We, in West Yellowstone and many locations throughout the
    regions, were first affected this summer by smoke beginning in
    early July. First was the impact from the fires in California
    and Oregon, then came Canada and on to Idaho before there were
    fires burning in our more local areas. It would be my
    estimation that there were very few days between the last two
    weeks of July and mid-September that smoke, in varying degrees,
    was not in the air.
        More than a century of hard suppression of wildland fires
    and the unintended and detrimental impact it has had on our
    forests cannot be overcome quickly. Nevertheless, it is time
    for further exploration into a more comprehensive plan to allow
    fires their natural role while not impacting the entire West.
    We do not say this lightly and fully recognize that any
    solutions need to be openly discussed and with all parties
    having seats at the table.
        Next, I would like to address the dramatic increase in
    visitation over the past few years and its impacts. Yellowstone
    is known worldwide, and for many internationals it is on their
    must-see list. Traffic jams sometimes miles and hours long,
    overflowing parking lots and restrooms, challenges with
    language, disrespect for wildlife and the fragility of the
    unique geology place grave demands on Yellowstone's resources.
    They all dramatically affect the Park and bleed out directly
    and indirectly into the bordering communities.
        The way will not be easy. We look to and for solutions that
    will enhance visitor experience while not adversely offsetting
    the economies of gateway communities. With over four million
    visitors, five gateways and four U.S. highways, answers will
    need to be multi-faceted, responding to an army of stakeholders
    and, in the end, providing maximum security for the incredible
    unique resource that is Yellowstone.
        We appreciate the Park Service's commitment to the research
    that is already well underway and that will inform and guide
    visitor management decisions and planning. Additional funding
    for all our parks and monuments, as they grapple with current
    increased visitation and that which is expected to come, would
    be a blessing.
        I wish to express appreciation to Senator Portman and to
    you, Senator Daines, for all the work on championing the
    Restore Our Parks Act. It will be critical, I believe, to this
    area and to all national parks. This Act, by addressing the
    backlog of infrastructure needs, would enable more of the
    regular park appropriations to find its way into additional
    staffing, integral to addressing many of the visitor management
    challenges.
        Lastly, at this time I would like to address access to
    public lands for West Yellowstone. To our east lies Yellowstone
    National Park and on our other three sides the vast majority of
    land belongs to the United States Forest Service. We are,
    truly, an impacted community. Hence our survival depends on
    access to public lands.
        West Yellowstone has long desired year-round access to the
    Park instead of the current fall and spring closures of our
    gate. Each closure is approximately six weeks in length and the
    result is very like a spigot being turned off. Certain seasonal
    affects, of course, would continue. We are, after all, a
    seasonal area. However, our community would be able to better
    develop a more sustainable year-round economy with such a
    change and visitors would be more easily satisfied.
        With Yellowstone on the bucket list of both citizens and
    international visitors throughout the world, rarely is ``time
    of the year'' considered. Yellowstone is the goal. Everyone
    understands that weather can impact a vacation; however, the
    planned, extended closures are confusing and many visitors
    arrive to be greatly disappointed. Access. It's essential.
        Thank you again for committing to be here in Gardiner and
    in Yellowstone and asking to hear from local voices. We
    appreciate your time and dedication.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Costello follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Daines. Thank you, Ms. Costello.
        Ms. Purvis.

            STATEMENT OF DEB PURVIS, PRESIDENT, COOKE CITY
                       PARK COUNTY WATER DISTRICT

        Ms. Purvis. Senator Daines, thank you so much for taking
    the time to reach out to our gateway communities. I'm really
    grateful for the opportunity to tell you about the challenges
    to our tiny little community.
        As you know, Cooke City is located--we're isolated. We're
    between Yellowstone National Park and then there's about ten
    miles of highway in Montana and on the other side of that is
    Wyoming. So we're truly an island and that presents unique
    problems with our highways and plowing and being able to access
    our roads. We have no cell phone service. Some people really
    enjoy that. Our visitors do not as much. We also have very
    limited internet.
        Senator Daines. If you get to the top of Granite Peak, you
    can get cell service.
        [Laughter.]
        Ms. Purvis. Yes, you can hike up to the hill.
        [Laughter.]
        The little community, Silver Gate and Colter Pass, on
    either side of Cooke City have very limited internet. We have
    to operate on satellite internet until you use up all of your
    limited data--they generously give you 10 gigs of data. When
    you use that up you're down to dial-up speeds.
        But mostly what I want to talk to you about today is our
    wastewater problem. Cooke City has a really big wastewater
    problem. As with all of us, tourism is the mainstay to our
    economy. We're blessed and challenged with the rapid and
    significant increases in the number of people who visit our
    area. So just wastewater is not a real popular topic to talk
    about, but I'm going to give you some idea of what we're
    facing.
        First of all, everybody in Cooke City, business and private
    residence, has their own onsite septic system. We have no way
    to manage community wastewater. In 2009, we had 4,000 visitors
    to our community center. In 2017, we had 23,000. You know about
    the gate interest we have, and we also recently have had a lot
    more bus traffic. This summer we had 222 buses carrying 6,660
    people and mostly they stopped at the community center to use
    the bathroom.
        The businesses on the south side of Main Street lease space
    from the National Forest Service for their drain fields. That
    permit is set to expire in two months, in December of this
    year, so we're scrambling to work on this.
        In 2010, we did build the community center, and they have
    their own onsite system. They sized that for 600 gallons per
    day based on best estimates and the DEQ usage table. The
    reality is that in August of last year, they averaged 990
    gallons per day with a peak day of 2,340 gallons. And so, they
    had taken some steps to address this. We were able to use some
    of our resort tax money for matching funds for a grant to get a
    PER, a Preliminary Engineering Report, which is the first step
    to address this. That initial draft is due out in March 2019,
    and we hope to have an election to form a sewer district in May
    2019.
        We are working with other organizations as well. I traveled
    to Helena this spring to give testimony at a local government
    legislative subcommittee hearing. We've also been able to work,
    not closely, with Park County Commissioners to partner and gain
    assistance and work toward solving this problem, and they've
    been wonderful to work with. We've also had just a real light
    at the end of the tunnel in that the National Forest Service
    approached us recently and offered, well, they didn't offer to
    give it to us, I'm sure, but----
        [Laughter.]
        --offered six parcels of land and asked, you know, how
    would this work for your community drain field? The engineer
    and I were just blown over. We didn't quite know what to do
    with that. So there's a real spirit of cooperation there, and
    that's been really refreshing.
        So, in conclusion, Cooke City is not a city, we're not
    incorporated. We're not a city or a county. We're very remote.
    We have no ability to tax that a political subdivision or a
    government entity does. We're a very important gateway to
    Yellowstone National Park--220,000, roughly, people go through
    the Northeast Gate. We need to be able to provide basic
    sanitation to our citizens and our guests while still
    safeguarding the natural resources.
        Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Purvis follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Daines. Thank you, Ms. Purvis, I appreciate the
    testimony.
        Mr. Sacca.

       STATEMENT OF RICHARD ANTHONY SACCA II, EMERGENCY MANAGER,
        OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, FLATHEAD COUNTY, MONTANA

        Mr. Sacca. Good morning, Senator Daines and ladies and
    gentlemen.
        My name is Rick Sacca. I'm here from Flathead County, up in
    Northwest Montana, where I serve as both the County Emergency
    Manager and the County Coordinator for Montana State Disaster
    and Emergency Services. I'm also fortunate to be the Local
    Emergency Planning Committee, or LEPC, Chairman. And in my part
    time I'm the Assistant Chief of Bad Rock Fire. So, as you can
    tell, my perspective is probably going to be an emergency
    services perspective.
        I plan to brief you on some of the many successes that
    we've seen as a result of the positive relations with our
    partners at Glacier National Park, I intend to highlight the
    importance of these relations as it relates to the never-ending
    cycle of emergency management, and I also hope to show you the
    value of these relations, the value that these relations build,
    particularly in terms of the management of emergencies and the
    processes that we have developed for emergency management. And
    these incidents go far beyond the response actions that you
    might think of: sending an ambulance or a police car. These are
    much more in-depth than processes and this allows us to work
    together in managing any incident or event or crisis that
    occurs in or out of the park.
        As detailed in my written testimony, the ever-increasing
    number of visitors to our national parks places an increased
    burden on the local emergency services and response agencies,
    particularly in the closest gateway communities. These agencies
    have grown over the years but at a rate commensurate with the
    population growth, permanent population growth, not in step
    with the significant increases in visitors that we are now
    serving.
        In Flathead County, these emergency response agencies in
    the gateway communities and throughout the county are primarily
    all volunteer, unpaid, rural fire departments. The lack of
    growth of these departments can be attributed to the lack of
    increased property ownership, lack of increased property taxes
    and the ever-
    decreasing rates of volunteerism we see nationwide. There is no
    improvement in that situation visible on the horizon from our
    view.
        The park is also, arguably, not keeping up with the
    dramatic increase of visitors in terms of their emergency
    services staff. In essence, none of us have grown sufficiently
    to accommodate the needs and demands of these increased
    visitors.
        Glacier National Park, Flathead County Office of Emergency
    Services and all of our emergency response and service agencies
    recognize this limitation and have chosen to seek better
    solutions. The idea that we can and do all work together helps
    us to combine our forces. Our emergency management team, if you
    would, and the collective pool of resources we have work
    together.
        The relationships we have developed allow us to plan and
    use these resources in this resource pool to plan for, respond
    and recover from any incident or emergency we face. The types
    of incidents that we have developed processes to respond to
    range from the minor vehicle collision, minor medical
    emergencies, serious trauma, structural fires, hazmat or
    hazardous materials leaks, search and rescue, wildland fire and
    all the way up to large events like mass casualty incidents,
    the Bakken oil train derailment and possible leak, and
    avalanches which cut off our interstate highway and major rail
    lines. All of these negatively affect tourism and the gateway
    communities.
        The ability to plan for and respond to these incidents is
    rooted on relationships with the park and county agencies that
    have created effective emergency management processes and a
    teamwork approach with the park and the community. I don't have
    a funding solution to the challenges we have.
        The commitment that's been demonstrated from the park and
    the county to protecting these relationships is clearly seen as
    they are designated as ``values of risk.'' And that's what I'd
    like to leave you with today is we, the park, Flathead National
    Forest, Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and
    Flathead County Emergency agencies include these values of risk
    in our delegations of authority when we sign a delegation of
    authority letter and commission incident management teams.
        Those teams consist of the typical Type 3 Incident
    Management Teams which we use on a routine basis. Regional Type
    2 teams we bring in when there's a larger-scale incident, and
    the national Type 1 teams as we brought two teams in this past
    season. The incident management objectives that are outlined in
    those delegations of authority become incident management
    objectives for every single person working on that incident:
    firefighter, police officer, what have you.
        The same needs to be done in the daily standard operating
    procedures of our national parks. The idea that we want to
    protect these relationships needs to be something that's
    regular course of business, not something that's a standout
    that we do only when there's a big fire.
        It is my hope that you have seen the tremendous value in
    these relationships and their results, and we ask you to help
    craft a more formalized mandate for the parks to follow this
    model, this successful model, and encourage support and nurture
    this type of relationship-building and relation maintenance
    with the external gateway community's emergency services.
        None of us can do this alone. We are all in this together,
    and I'm proud of the important work and successes we have
    achieved with Glacier National Park.
        Thank you for your time and thank you for listening.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Sacca follows:]
        [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Daines. Thank you.
        Before we get into some questions, I think it would just be
    worth noting some of the support staff who are here that makes
    these hearings possible.
        I will start with Rebecca--Rebecca Bonner is a Professional
    Staff Member from the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
    Raise your hand there, Rebecca. She serves on the Minority
    Staff with Senator Cantwell, who is the Ranking Member of this
    Committee from the State of Washington.
        And then to my right is Michelle Lane, Professional Staff
    Member from the Committee who serves on the Majority Staff
    under Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
        To my left is Joshua Sizemore. He serves on my legislative
    staff in Washington, DC. He is a native of Billings. So
    Billings is home, but we have him temporarily displaced in
    Washington, DC.
        And then Darla Ripchensky, Chief Clerk from the Energy and
    Natural Resources Committee. So it is great to have you out
    here as well. Thank you.
        So this literally is all the formalities of a U.S. Senate
    hearing, the way it is recorded and so forth. The beauty of
    this is we are in Gardiner, Montana.
        I am going to start with you, Mr. Sholly. If you could get
    the microphone back here.
        Welcome back to Montana. Welcome back to Yellowstone.
    Welcome back to your old school here.
        The question I have for you, in your mind, how do you see
    the relationship between the National Park Service and the
    Gardiner Schools working today and how is that different than
    when you were a student? Can you remember that far back, Cam?
        Mr. Sholly. I'm not sure if I was really thinking about the
    relationship between the park and the school district when I
    was going to school here. It's a great question though.
        From what I understand in my first 24 hours, 36 hours here,
    the park works very closely with the school district. The
    school has produced some amazing graduates--I wasn't talking
    about myself.
        [Laughter.]
        I was--I know this school is regularly ranked not only
    number one in Montana, but it's a top-ranking school in the
    country, too, from a Class C perspective, and that's because of
    the leadership of the school and the commitment of Gardiner and
    the importance that Gardiner puts, and Mammoth, on having a
    great school in a community like this which is absolutely
    essential. So I think we have a good relationship.
        I will tell you that my goal is to continue to ensure that
    that relationship ascends, that we really work on understanding
    better what issues you have, in what ways we can help solve
    some of those issues and, you know, anything that's within our
    legal authority that we have the ability to help you with, we
    will. The school itself, from an executive management
    standpoint, and the park and I can speak for the concessions as
    well and the businesses even here in Gardiner. Our goal is to
    attract the best and the brightest into this community, into
    Mammoth, and the best and the brightest have families and many
    times they'll make a decision if they think that a school, not
    just here but in many places around the country, is not up to
    their satisfaction for one reason or another. They will choose
    not to transfer and that can have a big impact on who we bring
    into these communities and the types of talent that we want and
    need to attract.
        And so, I think we have mutual objectives, mutual goals and
    a mutual commitment to continue working together to elevate and
    improve not only the relationships, but the type of things that
    we work on and the opportunities that we have in the future.
        Senator Daines. It is interesting. The two of you are
    sitting next to each other. I mean, you think of the important
    relationship.
        I remember when we were building our technology company in
    Bozeman, trying to sometimes recruit talent to come to Montana.
    The first question that was asked was, tell me about the
    schools. And that was, oftentimes, a key decision, like to use
    a matrix to come to a place like Gardiner, to Bozeman,
    wherever.
        Mr. Sholly, as you are aware, the Centennial set records
    around the country as it relates to visitation at our parks.
    Here at Yellowstone we continue to see record visitation
    numbers and just when we thought we would not see another
    record, we break that record here in Yellowstone. I know you
    track those numbers. Could you speak to how the increased
    visitor levels that we are seeing here impact the park and
    looking at both in terms of the challenge it presents as well
    as an opportunity?
        Mr. Sholly. Well, I really appreciate that question. It's
    very timely.
        I think we've increased visitation by about 50 million
    people nationally, since 2013 or 2014. We were running on about
    a 270 to 280 million visits per year for a very long time and
    with the buildup to the Centennial and other reasons, we've
    increased substantially in the last four to five years.
        That's not a bad thing, I mean, 330 million people enjoying
    our parks and connected to our parks. As you mentioned, our
    parks represent the very best of America, and they're
    bipartisan. And it's incumbent upon us to make those
    connections, and we've tried to do that very successfully in
    the past.
        There are impacts to that. I would put those in, kind of,
    two different buckets. One, impacts to resources, operations
    and staffing at the park level. And then in another bucket, the
    impacts on, kind of, peripheral impacts on communities and on
    the visitor experience itself.
        On the first bucket, which I think is in my mind, they're
    all priorities but something I'm going to be very heavily
    focused on is the corridors within, say, Yellowstone of my
    peers and around the service we're looking at these same
    things, where we have high-density, high-use, visitor impacts
    on fragile resources or see an increased damage to resources
    because of the visitor use. Those are things that need to be
    addressed immediately.
        And in the short amount of briefings that I've gotten here
    in my first day in the job, I can tell you already, there's a
    considerable amount, and especially in the West Yellowstone to
    Old Faithful corridor, of impacts because of the higher
    visitation levels, not just on visitor impacts, not just on the
    communities, but directly on the resources where people are
    parking their cars, where they're walking on geothermal
    features.
        And so, there are a lot of things that we need to do on
    that front, working with communities, working to come up with
    solutions that make sense. That doesn't necessarily mean
    restricting visitors, but as far as things that we can do to
    prevent that damage and those impacts, we need to line those
    out and work to execute them.
        Forty percent more visitation in the last 10 years in
    Yellowstone. And I haven't looked at these numbers in my first
    day here too much, but when you look at the numbers across the
    service, you see--when adjusted for inflation, some flat
    budgets--you see similar or eroding staffing levels. And so,
    you've got an increase in Yellowstone at 40 percent. You've got
    similar staffing. That's a stressor on our ability to manage
    the visitations. That's something that we look at.
        And then I heard an anecdotal story yesterday about
    visitation, or cars backing up at West Yellowstone all the way
    into town. And so, there's a lot we need to do from the
    standpoint of how efficient we are, do we have the right
    entrance framework, whether that be a west or here in Gardiner
    or anywhere else. And then once visitors are in the park, are
    they--are we doing what we need to do to manage that traffic
    flow, to manage that experience and do it in a way where they
    can enjoy these incredible resources, but we're also protecting
    them at the same time.
        Senator Daines. Thank you, Cam.
        I know we have had some good hearings in Washington looking
    at how technology might help us as well in terms of trying to
    smooth out some of the crowding issues we are seeing at times,
    so I think there will be more to come on that as we think about
    the future.
        Ms. Baltzley, first I want to congratulate you and Gardiner
    for achieving the ranking as top school in Montana, not only in
    Montana, but having the national recognition, and I think your
    own credentialing of your experiences in Virginia and Maryland
    and seeing what is out here. I know sometimes out here in
    Montana people think that we are not quite as smart as they are
    back east.
        Ms. Baltzley. That's right.
        Senator Daines. But we prove them wrong most of the time,
    don't we?
        Ms. Baltzley. We do.
        Senator Daines. Yes.
        Ms. Baltzley. The staff here is incredible.
        Senator Daines. Yes, exactly.
        Your testimony mentioned that enrollment in the school has
    fallen below 200 students for the first time in decades. As I
    travel around the state--I get to all 56 counties every two
    years--the plight of the Class C schools around Montana is
    very, very troubling. You attribute this to a variety of
    factors. Would you like to elaborate on what you feel is
    causing enrollment to decrease? You talked about it a bit in
    your testimony, but maybe you could elaborate further. And
    what, if anything, could be done to get enrollment back up in
    Gardiner in the coming years?
        Ms. Baltzley. Well some of it, you would assume, would be a
    natural ebb and flow of trends, as most school districts see,
    but this is such a dramatic drop that when we take a look at
    what's happening, we realize that our housing issue is probably
    at the root of--it's probably the largest cause of what's our
    declining enrollment.
        Although there are still employees who are working in the
    park for both either the National Park Service or for Xanterra,
    some of those employees are coming from Livingston, so they're
    no longer living in the Gardiner area because either they can't
    afford the housing that is here or there isn't housing
    available.
        So over the past, I've lived here since 2010 and we've
    noticed a dramatic shift and I think it was even occurring
    before that. When houses go up they're often bought at a huge
    price that may be investment, investors, et cetera, are able to
    afford and are changed into vacation rentals. They often then
    are used from May to October and then they may sit empty, some
    of them sit empty, or we even have in-seasonal employee housing
    for which the houses also sit empty during our school year.
        So we have young families who cannot afford to buy houses
    here in Gardiner or there's not even rentals available for
    them, affordable rentals, that they can come and purchase. So
    consequently they move up the valley, as we say, and they are
    beyond a point of rocks which is, where 89 crosses Yellowstone,
    our Gardiner boundary and a lot of our families are moving out
    to the Emigrant area or north of there. And, consequently, they
    have a choice: they can either continue to send their students
    here to Gardiner as out-of-district students, or they can go to
    Livingston. I think both choices are made. We have about 35, I
    think, families right now who are, choose to continue to send
    their students to Gardiner. A lot of the reasons are they're
    coming from Emigrant and their employment is in the National
    Park Service. So, consequently, that has a huge impact on our
    enrollment.
        As far as what we can do. There are several community
    groups that have been working on this housing situation, and
    we've been working to see whether or not there are places that
    we might be able to support some development of affordable
    housing. Well, just like West Yellowstone was talking, we're
    landlocked. We can't find those places because we have national
    lands. We've got state forest lands, et cetera. And so,
    consequently, we're not able to find the property in order to
    be able to work with some of the agencies to help us with that
    affordable housing.
        Senator Daines. Yes, interesting.
        Ms. Purvis talked about the national forest, talking about
    maybe some land for you all because you're landlocked as well,
    right? You are surrounded--just thinking about what we need to
    do here----
        Ms. Baltzley. Right.
        Senator Daines. ----as we grow and you have a 40 percent
    increase in visitation----
        Ms. Baltzley. Right.
        Senator Daines. ----over a period of 10 years.
        Ms. Baltzley. Right.
        Senator Daines. Something has got to give here, it seems
    like.
        Ms. Baltzley. Right.
        And we look to, you know, maintaining that same quality----
        Senator Daines. Yes.
        Ms. Baltzley. ----of education that we've been able to do,
    that has given us that ranking of number one, et cetera. And we
    do need to be able to figure out a way in order to have our,
    yeah, our teachers, which is another piece.
        Senator Daines. Right.
        Ms. Baltzley. Is, you know, you asked about declining
    enrollment but even when we do have new teachers the first
    question is, we did a little reconnaissance before we came and
    we're not going to be able to afford housing here.
        Senator Daines. Yes.
        I want to follow up on another question and get into some
    details about the funding for the Gardiner Schools. You talked
    about that a bit in your testimony. You mentioned the school
    used to receive funding directly from the National Park Service
    for students who attended school in Gardiner. I remember that
    distinctly.
        Ms. Baltzley. Yes, thank you very much for helping us.
        Senator Daines. I think I was going through the National
    Park budgets, and the issue was revealed.
        Ms. Baltzley. Right.
        Senator Daines. And that line item has now been replaced
    with a payment from the State of Wyoming. I remember hearing
    about it when I was in the House, and we were working with the
    Wyoming delegation to protect prior year payments because that
    was also an issue regarding the arrears piece.
        Ms. Baltzley. Correct.
        Senator Daines. That would have been devastating, if I----
        Ms. Baltzley. $8 million.
        Senator Daines. Yes, and to assure the school was made
    whole.
        How is this updated arrangement working for you all? I
    would like to hear more about that.
        Ms. Baltzley. Well, we've had to adjust and you heard that
    this past year was very dramatic in our adjustments because we
    did have, you know, with the confluence of things that have
    been going on since that money, which was not earmarked in
    our--did not need to be earmarked in our general fund budget,
    which then allowed us to use it for some things over and beyond
    what we, a Class C, might typically have been able to use. When
    that money was no longer coming to us and the Wyoming payment
    came in, working with the State of Montana, that money now
    needed to go directly into our general fund which then offset
    what Montana was paying for us, paying us.
        So now, we only--the only pieces that we have coming in,
    for the most part, are in our general fund which is spent every
    year and we are not able to add to our reserves as much as we
    have been in the past, which then creates an issue of when we
    have major factors like what I described with our
    infrastructure maintenance with having to replace an aging
    roof. It had to be replaced. We have three boilers of which
    one, the oldest, is the only functioning one. Those kinds of
    things take down from our reserves. They're not budgeted into
    our general funds.
        So we do receive impact aid. We also receive REAP money
    which is, I think, they----
        Senator Daines. By the way, Ms. Baltzley, on the impact
    aid, you mentioned the formula issue----
        Ms. Baltzley. Yeah.
        Senator Daines. ----there, about where the employees
    actually were working, where the offices were----
        Ms. Baltzley. Correct.
        Senator Daines. ----and all that, then some that did not
    qualify for impact aid.
        Ms. Baltzley. Correct. Right.
        Senator Daines. We have staff here who took notes quickly,
    as I did as well. We want to go back and look at that----
        Ms. Baltzley. Great.
        Senator Daines. ----to see if there is something there that
    could be changed in just an administrative rule issue. Is that
    a law issue? We are going to go investigate that, yes----
        Ms. Baltzley. Well, thank you because that is a challenge.
        Senator Daines. Yes.
        Ms. Baltzley. Because so many of the people living in the
    community actually work in the park, but their offices--they
    could be guides.
        Senator Daines. Right.
        Ms. Baltzley. They could be independent contractors.
        Senator Daines. Yes, we will take that as a follow-up item
    here, too, to see if there is something we can do there.
        Ms. Baltzley. Great, thank you.
        Senator Daines. Because I think we are violating the
    principle and the spirit of what is trying to be done on the
    algebra there.
        Ms. Baltzley. Great, thank you.
        Senator Daines. The formula needs to be adjusted, best I
    can tell, first look.
        Ms. Baltzley. Thank you.
        Senator Daines. Yes.
        Ms. Baltzley. So consequently, our funding has changed. And
    so, we're trying to, and especially the Board of Trustees,
    being the stewards of the money, is trying to act responsibly
    and trying to be able to take care of our aging infrastructure,
    be able to appropriately use our budget without going over,
    without dipping into reserves more than we need to because
    those reserves are needed for some of the things that are one-
    time costs, et cetera.
        Consequently, it's been a change in the way that we do
    business and that has impacted our programs of education. We've
    eliminated some of our academic programs. More of our students
    are taking online courses because we don't have the staff in
    order to have direct programs for those students.
        Senator Daines. Thank you.
        I am going to move to Mr. Sacca here for a minute.
        You described this close, cooperative relationship with the
    National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, other federal
    partners. Would you describe your relationship with the Park
    Service as generally positive? And what, if anything, could be
    done to improve that relationship with the service and other
    federal partners for that matter?
        Mr. Sacca. I believe that Flathead County and our
    relationship with Glacier National Park is truly outstanding.
    It's to be commended that they're so willing to be good
    partners. We enjoy the same level of partnership with the Park,
    the Forest Service, DNRC and the County.
        It was really started, just a couple of people that knew
    each other, myself and the Chief Ranger, we work next door to
    each other. We live next door in the park and when our jobs
    took us in different directions, he stayed in the park and I
    went to the county, we maintained that relation and continued
    to build that.
        That was quickly capitalized and actually championed by the
    superintendent and then our commissioners at the county level.
    They actually recognized the value in that. That allowed it to
    flourish and happen beyond just the two guys that knew each
    other to all of our offices working cooperatively in that
    spirit of cooperation which now is championed by the
    superintendent and by the county commissioners. That's the
    value of what we found.
        Senator Daines. Thank you.
        Ms. Purvis, how are the wastewater and the water
    improvements currently paid for?
        Ms. Purvis. Wastewater is not currently paid for. Our water
    improvements--we built a new water system in 2011, $2.2
    million, made up of a combination of grants and low interest
    loans.
        People in the community right now pay, we fund that with a
    system called EDU, which is an estimated daily usage. Each unit
    is $32.17. It's, kind of, an arbitrary assignment. Restaurants
    are assigned 1.5 EDUs. So I have a cafe there. Our water bill
    is like $46 a month. The hotels are hit very hard. They pay 1
    EDU, plus 0.5 EDU for every room that they have. So some of
    them are paying $700 and $800 a month for water. Residents pay
    $32.17. We are looking now at moving to a different rate
    structure based on usage. Restaurants, unhappily for me, are
    going to be paying considerably more. Hotels will be paying
    less, I believe.
        Senator Daines. What alternative funding models do you
    think need to be explored?
        Ms. Purvis. I'm at a disadvantage here. I'm a psychiatric
    nurse and a restaurant owner, and I don't even know what the
    options are.
        You know, we have a population based on the recent Census
    Bureau of 2015. I'm not sure it's entirely accurate, but they
    had said we had 35 year-round residents with a median household
    income of $38,500. So the community cannot afford to do this on
    their own.
        Senator Daines. Any kind of thoughts, perhaps, on whether
    it is a user fee where visitors would be able to contribute to
    that as well, or just thinking out loud here of ideas to try to
    generate revenue to cover some of these things?
        Ms. Purvis. Sure. And we have our three percent resort tax.
    That generates about $170,000 a year in Cooke City.
        Senator Daines. Yes.
        Ms. Purvis. But in January, it's an interesting meeting
    when people fight for their share of the pie. The local option
    tax that Park County Commissioners and Erica talked about would
    be, I think, useful for us, so that just the gateway
    communities could charge that tax for visitors who come
    through.
        Senator Daines. I have to believe that somebody who gets to
    your part of the neighborhood here often, Silver Gate and Cooke
    City, especially in August. You talk about those peak-use
    months in August. How does that compare to what you see in
    January and February when it turns into more of a snowmobiling,
    cross-country skiing, backcountry skiing, kind of economy?
        Ms. Purvis. That's a really nice time of recovery for many
    of our septic systems. The numbers are not nearly as high. I
    don't have the specific figures for you.
        Senator Daines. Ms. Costello, my question for you is a
    little more general in terms of the habits of visitors to
    Yellowstone National Park. Are you able to capture how many
    tourists stop at local businesses versus those who drive
    straight through to the Park?
        Ms. Costello. Well, when I consider that question I can
    really start to think of maybe a way of trying to understand
    that. But I don't believe, I know we do not have a way of
    capturing that at this point in time because we would not know
    if a visitor, for instance, stopped at the far side of town and
    had breakfast before they went through the gate.
        So all of those sorts of things would be very difficult for
    us to really know. We obviously know that West Yellowstone is
    the most popular gateway to Yellowstone, and I'm sure much of
    that is because we're closest to California. But also--well,
    it's true. But the other part of that would be just if, you
    know, we have a couple of highways, three highways and so, it
    makes a busy place. And no, we do not know that figure.
        Senator Daines. As you work with the businesses there in
    the Chamber and so forth that you interact with, do you have
    any strategies for the businesses? I mean, how do they increase
    their revenue there to get tourists to stop in West Yellowstone
    before they enter the park and spend some of their money?
        Ms. Costello. We spend a considerable amount. West
    Yellowstone is one of the funded communities for bed tax in
    Montana. There's a whole formula, but West Yellowstone is
    fortunate to have that. And then we also have the West
    Yellowstone Tourism Business Improvement District. Both of
    those fund a considerable amount for our small community, a
    considerable amount of marketing and advertising that we do.
    And that strategy is reviewed and gone over annually to see
    which ways, what more we could do.
        One of the things that we like and are excited about are
    the additional activities and attractions that are beginning to
    appear in our area, because I do believe it helps take some of
    the pressure off the gate because people will come and do other
    things as well.
        For instance, the Adventure Park with ziplines and the
    Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center are in the process of this
    early into the next tourism season will be opening their
    riparian habitat which will have otters and lots of types of
    fish of the area. And we see that as being a tremendous
    attraction as well. So the more of those things that we can do.
        We also send people on tours all over the area. Of course,
    always bringing them back to West Yellowstone, I might add. But
    we send them on loop tours that bring them back but encourage
    them to visit those things that are wonderful places but
    additional to Yellowstone--Mesa Falls, the Earthquake Visitor
    Center, all of those.
        Senator Daines. Thank you.
        Mr. Sacca, your testimony mentions that the local emergency
    response agencies of Flathead County are primarily funded
    through resident property tax levies and most first responders
    in the area are either all volunteer or partial volunteer. I
    know this can put a strain on your resources in terms of time
    and people, particularly in the peak fire and the peak tourism
    season when it all happens, usually at the same time. Could you
    describe the type of fiscal impacts this has on your local
    budget and what ideas you might have that could be better
    appropriated in the future?
        Mr. Sacca. Well, sir, when we have the large fire season or
    large other types of incidents that exceed four hours, the
    response takes a long time. There's a funding mechanism that's
    in place. There's agreements between the Forest Service, the
    county, the park and DNRC and have standardized rates that we
    can use for that.
        But anything that's less than four hours is considered
    mutual aid, the Good Neighbor Policy, and we just go and do it.
    And the vast, vast majority of those responses that are related
    to tourism directly, are those one and two and three hour
    responses, somebody has a medical emergency, a vehicle
    accident, a vehicle fire and things of that nature.
        There is no funding mechanism that exists right now, that
    we're aware of, and that puts a huge strain on us because
    that's the bread and butter of what we do. We have some
    departments that go out several times a day. For a rural
    department with just six members, that's a tremendous burden on
    them and their families.
        On some of the larger departments, where we send out 10,
    12, 15 calls per day and none of it's being reimbursed, but yet
    it's all in support of somebody else's jurisdiction, that takes
    a tremendous financial burden on those.
        Then those finances, or financial burdens, some of it is
    salary. Three of our 20 departments have a full-time pay
    structure, just 3, where the 17 others are 100 percent
    volunteer. They're not funded at all.
        So there is no money coming in there, but we're still
    consuming resources. We're still using things to clean up the
    spill from the vehicle accident and medical supplies and things
    like that on every single call that we do. We're putting wear
    and tear on all of our vehicles and ambulances and fire trucks,
    and we're consuming fuel, another huge expense. None of that is
    reimbursed.
        So for the big incidents, yes, there's clearly a funding
    mechanism and there's 100 percent reimbursement, and those
    multi-day events and these strike teams and task forces that we
    send to respond to fires, 100 percent is being reimbursed. But
    all of the small ones are the ones that are really doing the
    damage to us.
        Senator Daines. So it is my understanding the task force is
    paid for services. I guess the question is going to be, do you
    think you are receiving fair market value?
        Mr. Sacca. Yes, sir, I think we do.
        For example, the task force that I led this summer to go in
    and respond into Glacier National Park based on a phone call, a
    911 call from the park, to bring what's called a wildland
    structure protection task force. It's about 26 people, about 13
    vehicles, and we go into the park to help them protect the Lake
    McDonald Ranger Station. Every single gallon of fuel, every man
    hour for the employees that went, and the daily usage rate or
    hourly usage rate for those vehicles, all were part of a
    formula that's been agreed upon, an existing agreement through
    DNRC. The DNRC rates are reviewed and updated every single
    year, so all of us, all of our partners, feel that that's an
    accurate and fair rate for reimbursement.
        Senator Daines. Okay, thank you.
        Ms. Baltzley, I want to come back to something that you
    said in your testimony. You mentioned the Gardiner Schools had
    to reduce, I think, 7.5 FTEs in order to balance the budget.
        I have to applaud you, first of all, in balancing a budget.
    DC hasn't figured that out yet. But in terms of keeping
    Gardiner's reputation as one of the top schools in the state, I
    mean, I think about when we were raising our children, that
    would be a very attractive thing to think about, bringing your
    kids here to one of the top schools in the state, not to
    mention the nation. But can you speak to what it means to the
    students and staff here when you have to reduce 7.5 FTEs out
    of--what's the total FTE count?
        Ms. Baltzley. Nineteen teachers and then a staff that
    includes another 7 or 8, so close to 30.
        Senator Daines. Right.
        I mean that is 7.5 and the absolute is one thing, but when
    you look at it in terms of about a quarter----
        Ms. Baltzley. Correct.
        Senator Daines. ----of your entire staff.
        Ms. Baltzley. Correct.
        Senator Daines. Having spent a lot of years managing
    businesses, a 20 to 25 percent kind of reduction in force is
    huge. Maybe you could talk about what that means to the
    students and staff here?
        Ms. Baltzley. It's been--I'm not sure the students have
    noticed as much because of the staff that we have, a lot of
    them have stepped up and taken on commitments. For example,
    even our administration, we reduced the athletic director, so
    now the principal and the superintendent split the athletic
    director position, so, things like that. So a lot of the staff
    have stepped up to the plate and picked up some of those
    pieces.
        The Board of Trustees has been calling this a Phase Two, is
    what's going to happen this year. Phase One was addressing the
    budget issues. Phase Two was addressing what we're calling the
    new normal. And the new normal is we have to take this as an
    opportunity of taking a look at our programs and saying, what
    do our students need for their future? So how are we going to
    rework what we currently have, knowing the staff that we have,
    and try and figure out a different way of keeping that quality
    education program.
        We also have a new educational foundation, the North
    Yellowstone Educational Foundation, that has started with
    their--put together an organization that is a non-profit--
    that's an organization to help us meet some of the needs that
    are over and beyond what would be our normal educational needs.
    For example, they funded a position that is going to help us
    make those connections with Yellowstone in an educational way
    because our students benefit from being in this area and having
    a unique opportunity to explore things that they wouldn't have
    other places. So they are helping us fund a position in order
    to coordinate that. They're also working on some other
    opportunities to be able to support professional development
    for teachers that we can't afford in our general budget. We
    need to have our teachers have that training.
        So we're trying to do other things outside of our general
    fund that we might be able to do that. We've just set up our
    committees at our last board meeting that are looking at our
    academic program. We're looking at the housing situation. We're
    looking at the future strategic planning as it relates. So this
    is our year of work toward that. We will involve the staff in
    order to help us. They're always on our committees. And so, how
    can we best utilize the resources that we currently have here
    now?
        Senator Daines. Thank you. Thoughtful answer.
        I have a question here I am going to open up to the entire
    panel, kind of go round robin here, as we wrap up.
        We have talked a lot today about some of the challenges we
    see in our gateway communities, but it also sounds like there
    are some success stories out there as well. Sometimes it is
    nice to end on a higher note, too, as we also look at the
    challenges. I would like to hear from each of you if you have
    ideas for solutions that could come from either a federal,
    state, local government, maybe something you have seen already
    work that we should continue to explore further.
        We have spent some time working with the Congressional
    Research Services as it relates to things like wastewater. Ms.
    Purvis, for example, like what federal grant programs are out
    there for small, rural communities that have scale problems but
    don't have a source of tax revenue, particularly in tourism
    type towns.
        So that is the question, what solutions come to mind,
    federal, state or local government or private sector? You
    talked a little bit about some of the foundations, perhaps,
    that are out there, philanthropic causes to help out in
    education or some combination thereof to help address the
    issues we are talking about here today.
        I will also let whoever has an idea to start off. It looks
    like the Superintendent is ready to say something. Cam?
        Mr. Sholly. Well, I really appreciate that question. I
    think that you can look at this gateway arch project right out
    here that was completed here recently, which really helped
    improve traffic flows, pedestrian safety. It accomplished a lot
    of objectives and I think it was a terrific partnership with
    the community of Gardiner.
        The leveraging of private dollars, as you know, working
    with Senator Blunt, we just completed the largest public-
    private partnership in the Gateway Arch in St. Louis where we
    really leveraged, effectively, philanthropic dollars with some
    federal dollars and local tax dollars in order to achieve
    something incredible.
        I think for us there are areas in which we can work with
    federal dollars, legally, and have positive impacts on our
    gateway communities by the things that we do within the
    boundary. There are many things we can share--responsibilities
    for that have joint benefits both in the communities and within
    the park.
        Our Yellowstone Forever group has done a tremendous job in
    Yellowstone raising private dollars for an incredible amount of
    projects within the park, but also things that support efforts
    outside of the park.
        So I think it's really about, do we have an inventory, do
    we recognize where some of those opportunities exist and then
    how do we best leverage our resources, either appropriated
    dollars, community dollars, philanthropic dollars, to get the
    results that we need and make sure those dollars are invested
    in the right places.
        Senator Daines. Thank you.
        Ms. Baltzley. Kind of tagging in on that collaboration
    piece, I think that's an extremely important piece for the
    entities that do work in these gateway communities to be able
    to work together.
        Specifically, we really need support for our housing
    solution. And since we're--land is our constraint, that's
    probably a place where the national and state agencies might be
    able to support just, you know, possibly some of the things
    that were done with the Cooke City issue. We might also be able
    to tag into that opportunity because we don't have anyplace to
    build housing. There's no land available.
        The general support for education, you know, not reducing
    the general educational budget, especially as it relates to the
    aging infrastructures. I know that Gardiner is not the only
    school district, having worked in a lot of school districts and
    even our neighboring school districts, that is an issue. So if
    there's anything from a national perspective that could be done
    from an aging infrastructure of our school buildings, I think
    that's an important aspect.
        Senator Daines. Ms. Baltzley, it seems like we keep
    circling around this housing issue.
        Ms. Baltzley. Yeah.
        Senator Daines. It seems just critical right now.
        Ms. Baltzley. Right.
        Senator Daines. And as you talked about strategic
    planning----
        Ms. Baltzley. Correct.
        Senator Daines. ----that you are starting to do here with
    your board. Is there, and this is maybe outside the realm of
    your responsibility, you probably have a view on it or know
    about it, just the community of Gardiner, per se. Are they
    looking at long-term master plans here on housing and where
    this all goes?
        Ms. Baltzley. We have been.
        I joined the community in 2012 and there was already--there
    was an organization that was out there called the Greater
    Gardiner Community Council and it was an opportunity for,
    because we're unincorporated there is no--where do you go for
    grants? Who is going to get grants on behalf of the community?
    How are we going to make decisions?
        That's still a question. There's a current community group
    that is just starting some work that's called Gardiner, A
    Successful Community. It's looking at addressing the big issues
    that face us as a gateway community where we do rely on our
    tourism businesses to be a dynamic, economic community but that
    comes at a price.
        And how do we remain a dynamic community so that we're not
    just a tourism community that then shuts its doors when the
    season is over and, I mean, you probably noticed if you are
    staying here, a lot of our restaurants are now closing and it's
    a little bit different.
        We've been working with some of our area groups, the HRDC
    out of Bozeman, et cetera, have been part of that organization
    where they actually, over the past several years, have been
    working on, can we get some developers in here in order to be
    able to help us support affordable housing? We get them in
    here, there's no land. So it circles back to that land issue
    all the while.
        So, yes, this community is extremely dedicated to trying to
    make sure that Gardiner remains that dynamic community of
    people that really want to live here and want to be able to
    maintain the excellence in all things, not only our schools,
    but in everything else. There are organizations that are out
    there, and this will probably be a big year of some decisions.
        There was a recent article in the Livingston Enterprise
    that a survey was done before the gateway project and housing
    was a big issue. Then they were able to come back, I think it
    was the University of Montana that also did the survey, came
    back this past summer, did another survey. Same exact things
    and that was five years ago and more intense about the housing
    issues and how do we solve that.
        Senator Daines. Well, having grown up in Bozeman since 1964
    and growing up in the construction business there, Mom and Dad
    were in the home building business, I watched that, certainly,
    what Bozeman did when it was 13,000 people when I was going to
    kindergarten there at Longfellow.
        It is something I know Cam will be looking at as well. I
    mean, the partnership here between Gardiner and Yellowstone
    National Park around thinking about this landlocked situation
    which might require some Congressional action to work with
    everyone here to probably have some, I am sure who owns the
    deeds around the town here probably might involve our neck of
    the woods here in Washington, DC, to see what we can do here to
    try to figure something out here too.
        Ms. Baltzley. Thank you.
        Senator Daines. Thank you.
        Ms. Costello. Well, I was thinking that about a couple of
    things. One is going back to the idea of being landlocked and
    I, because I don't remember exactly how this occurred
    initially, but West Yellowstone was recently able to purchase
    80 acres from the Forest Service directly. But that was
    included in some legislation that allowed for that.
        Is that a possibility for other areas that are exactly in
    exactly the same situation because that might, indeed, be a
    solution?
        Senator Daines. You are living on islands here, if you
    think about the ownership, right? We have to figure something
    out.
        Ms. Costello. Right.
        Senator Daines. Because this is, I mean, just projecting
    this out 10, 20, 30, 40 years--at some point, I mean, the
    crisis is here now. It is only going to get worse.
        Ms. Costello. Right.
        Senator Daines. We are going to start thinking about that
    longer-term, perhaps.
        Yes?
        Ms. Costello. And West Yellowstone is in the process, has
    received a grant to do some study that will help, hopefully,
    with the park entrance, the whole situation as well. So that's
    one thing that West Yellowstone is doing.
        We're also, of course, where is the topic of housing not?
    Nowhere. It's everywhere.
        And so, I don't know, I was just reflecting on the fact
    that when Superintendent Wink was here he changed the
    conversation from numbers of snowmobiles in the wintertime to
    sound. It changed the whole viewpoint, sound, sound events.
        Maybe we're all locked into just looking at it one way and
    we need a voice that will change that conversation so that we
    do see another solution. Isn't there a line over here? Open
    your mind before your mouth. So I think we're going to have to
    have really, really open minds about a solution to this because
    from the projects in big cities to wherever you are, it's been
    tough.
        Ms. Purvis. Well, I'd just like to echo what you're saying
    about collaboration and partnerships and opening our minds.
    We've been very fortunate to find an ombudsman in DEQ who has
    been actually helping us look for solutions rather than just
    tell us, ``no, you can't do that,'' ``no, you can't do that''
    and ``no, you can't do that.''
        I think that would be incredibly helpful. We're addressing,
    well, we're not addressing, but we're suffering from the
    housing issue as well and attracting employees because we have
    no place to put them. And it's easy in Cooke City, as we're so
    isolated, to feel isolated as well, as we're trying to address
    these problems.
        It would be really wonderful to be able to bring these
    resources together and work with a problem-solving mindset as
    opposed to the regulations and what we can't do.
        Senator Daines. Great, thank you.
        Mr. Sacca. I know it sounds, kind of, just common sense,
    but one of the things that we can do is really work on just
    maintaining those close and cooperative relationships. I know
    that it sounds hokey, but realistically if we have good,
    quality relations that we're cooperating and we're
    communicating on all issues, not just when the bad day occurs
    and we have an emergency or when we have crises that we need to
    address. A good relation is going to help facilitate finding
    and implementing the solutions that we need. Bad relations
    could easily derail any type of improvement that we want to do.
    So what do we need to do? And how can we do that?
        Setting the tone at the top, whether that's the Director of
    the Forest Service or the Director of the NPS setting the tone,
    saying that quality relations are values at risk that need to
    be nurtured and maintained. That trickles down to the Forest
    Service, the state DNRC. We see the success of that in Flathead
    County with our agency heads of those two agencies, DNRC and
    the Forest Service, and the Superintendent of the National
    Park.
        Seeing this as a value at risk and understanding that it
    needs to be maintained and nurtured, that leadership, if they
    would continue to champion and protect those relationships with
    all of the emergency services, but also all the stakeholders
    and all the cooperators, that's what we need. And we need to
    set the tone at the top.
        Senator Daines. Well, that is a good way to close on the
    last word, I think. I appreciate that.
        We are going to conclude, and I especially want to thank
    the witnesses for your time here today, for your testimony
    today, for your thoughtful comments. I found it very, very
    enlightening. I appreciate it very much.
        This hearing record will be open for two weeks.
        This hearing is now adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 12:35 p.m. the hearing was adjourned.]

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