The National Park Service has provided the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation a comprehensive list of needs for the calendar year 2010. These have been carefully examined and reveiwed by the board of trustees of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation to certify that that the projects listed satisfy the Foundation's grant gudilelines and are appropriate for park philanthropy and stewardship. They are listed below:
Parks as Classrooms – 2010-2011 School Year - $103,000
Provide 5 winter seasonal positions (one for each District and one for the Roanoke Valley) to provide classroom and on-site education and stewardship programs for schools near the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Restore Seasonal Staff - $30,000
Provide staffing support in the area of community planning
75th Anniversary Support Costs - $25,000
Funds are needed to support activities of the staff provided by the City of Roanoke and State of North Carolina.
Facilitated Planning Meeting for Expanded Blue Ridge Parkway Management Team - $7,500 - ( estimate)
Funds are requested to assist with expenses of hiring a facilitator and meeting support for planning meeting to be scheduled in the /early spring. Funding will greatly enhance working capacity of existing Parkway staff.
Graveyard Fields – Next Steps - Purchase Vault Toilet for Graveyard Fields - $60,000
This project will provide for the construction of a new comfort station at the Graveyard Fields Overlook, which is one of the most popular day use areas on the section of the Parkway located south of Asheville, NC. Currently, there is no restroom type facilities on site or with in walking distance of the trailhead. Park staff are currently reviewing CJMW architects response to park comments on the proposed comfort station.
Provide Maintenance of Bass Lake Comfort Station – An endowment of $100,000.
This will provide for one year of maintenance for the new facility.
Planning & Design to Improve Visitor Services: Upgrade Linville Falls Campground Amenities Adding Showers and Electric Hookups - $60,000
These two improvements in campground amenities are frequently noted by visitors as basic services that would enhance the overall visit, giving visitors a more positive experience and increase their length of stay in the park. Fee Demonstration funds are available to augment this project and Blue Ridge Parkway staff can provide labor on some phases of the work. In the course of scoping this project with park staff a number of site design issues were identified in which additional planning work needs to be accomplished prior to adding showers and electric hook ups. Accomplishment of this project will allow this project to actually become eligible for federal funding.
Transfer park A/V Materials to Disk - $10,000
Transfer to CD and DVD the park’s cassettes VHS tapes, movie film and reel-to-reel tapes which are retained in the park’s archive collection. List of media that needs to be transferred to CD and DVD:
• Approximately 200 cassettes from the 1960’s to the 1990’s. Spoken word oral histories of people who live along the Parkway corridor, former NPS employees, CCC and WPA.
• Approximetely 49 5” reel to reel tapes of oral histories about Johnson Farm, Mabry Mill, Cone Estate and Georgia Extension.
• Approximately 23 7” reel to reel tapes of the BLRI 20th anniversary program, geology of Linville Falls, Peaks of Otter oral histories.
• Movie film of the Blue Ridge Parkway 20th anniversary
• Nine Beta/VHS tapes of the BLRI 60th anniversary.
• Nine VHS tapes titled “Sam Weems Odyssey” of former Superintendent Weems driving along the Parkway, 1983.
• 18 VHS tapes of the Blue Ridge Parkway photolog.
• 3 movie film of Blue Ridge Parkway
Approximate costs for project – this is a low estimate as most companies charge by the hour for oral histories and per foot for movie film. It is very difficult to determine what is on the tape and film until transfer takes place.
• 200 audio cassettes $20.00 per cassette if 80 minute cassette, over 80 minutes is an extra charge, we do have some 90 and 120 minute tapes.
• 95 reel to reel tapes @ $20.00 to $25.00 per hour average
• 4 rolls of movie film – average cost is 10 cents per foot plus cost of DVD.
• 36 VHS tapes @ $15.00 - $20.00 per copy
• Total cost estimate = $10,000 but will probably be lower, in the $8,000 to $9,000 range.
Acquire Radar Traffic Counter - $5,000
Purchase 1 radar traffic counters. These portable counters are capable of measuring the overall traffic flow in both directions on a two lane road, but of more importance is their ability to:
• measure traffic speed by hour (not car by car so they are not used for enforcement), and
• traffic count by hour broken down by vehicle class (large/RV, medium/standard car, or small/ motorcycle).
The addition of this counters will enable the park to obtain better data to use in the development of management strategies. If expereince with the one counter is satisfactory, the purchase of three more will be considered.
Conduct Oral History Interviews - $9,500:
The oral history interview would be conducted by a contractor and a BLRI staff person. The interview would be taped onto CD and videotaped, transcribed and the originals would be placed in the parks archives collection.
Estimated cost of project:
• Travel for one contractor, one videographer and one BLRI staff person to MA or travel expenses for Ms. McConnell and Ms. Lewis to travel to Blowing Rock for the interview: $7500
Interview and transcription costs: $30.00 per hour for interview, $50.00 per hour for videographer and $10.00 per hour for transcribing tapes. Total cost estimate: $1800.00
Integrating View Area Mapping into GIS : Phase 1A: Field work - $15,840
Vistas within the county and from which the county is visible will need to be scouted – verifying the accuracy of the existing points, determining the visible azimuth’s for each point (optional), and adding vistas that do not exist on the current dataset. Also, base line photographs of each view area will recorded.
• Verification of existing points and adding of informal vistas for development of potential view areas (10 days)
• Photographing each view area—North and South bound and center panorama views (10 days)
• Determining visible azimuths for development of current view areas (10 days)
Integrating View AreaMapping into GIS: Phase 1B: View Areas generation and Priority assessment Individual view areas will be generated for each vista and converted to polygons for display purposes. These results will be re-classed to remove non-visible areas and give additional priority to overlooks. The view areas will then be combined into final results that determine each point importance to the visitors’ experience based on the distance from the observer point, the number of points from which it is visible and whether it is visible from vistas or overlooks. Observer points will also be added to the resulting consolidated polygons.
• Priority assessment of potential view areas for 19 counties (38 days)
• Additional priority assessment of actual view areas for 19 counties (19 days)
• Consolidation of individual county files and addition of observer points (5 days)
Resulting products:
• Individual potential view areas for all vistas in both raster and polygon format
• Consolidated raster indicating protection priority for each potentially visible cell.
• Consolidated set of polygons indicating protection priorities for visible area, and also containing an attribute that lists the vistas from which it is visible.
• The same 3 products listed above for current actual visibility.
Overhead and turnover of results
• Meetings, Data cleanup and documentation (15 days)
• Additional time for data cleanup of actual view areas (3 days)
Integrating View Area Mapping into GIS: Phase 2: Parcel and Ownership analysis - $20,304
Results for each county will be merged with parcel data for the county. Visible areas will be calculated to determine parcels which are significant – based on their visible size and distance from the Parkway.
• Parcel and ownership analysis of potential view areas for 19 counties (optional 76 days)
• Parcel and ownership analysis of potential view areas for 19 counties (optional 57 days)
Resulting products:
• Polygon layer of potentially visible parcels that are significant to visitors’ experiences with attributes for protection priority, ownership type, observer points, visible acreage, and ownership information from the county files.
• The same product for the current actual visible parcels.
Overhead and turnover of results
• Meetings, Data cleanup and documentation (5 days)
• Additional time for data cleanup of actual view areas (3 days)
Note: Project is requested to be funded in two phases. Park would request funding for Phase 2 after Phase 1 is accomplished.
Searchable Digital Photographic Database - $18,250
Develop a photo database and computer desktop tools by which Parkway staff members can enter, store, manage, and share the thousands of photographs now in parkway archives and files. The Parkway has four distinct categories of photographs that would be organized for internal staff use and shared with researchers, travel writers, the general public and others in various ways. Those categories are:
• Thousands of archived old photographs, mostly black and white.
• Thousands of color photographic and slide images used for educational and interpretive purposes.
• Hundreds of color view area/vista photographic and slide images.
• Specific subject photographs of parkway assets both in color and black and white.
The project is of a size and complexity that the Access software and a modified System Design Life Cycle (SDLC) method of development approach is necessary. A close working relationship between developer and user will allow flexibility in the SDLC process. A trained person is available to design, develop, test and produce the database(s).(Molling)
Trail and Viewing Deck at Yonahlossee Overlook - $15,000 (planning)
This project will provide for the construction of a viewing platform at the Yonahlossee Overlook, which offers a very scenic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Grandfather Mountain. Currently visitors use an informal trail to access an unimproved spot next to the Motor road to be able to photograph the view.
Construct Viewing Deck Sharp Top - $8,000:
This project will provide for the construction of a viewing platform at the Bus Stop turnaround on Sharp Top Mountain, which offers a very scenic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Bedford/Lynchburg valley. Currently visitors gather at the side of the bus access road, which does not afford them the best view of this part of the Parkway.
Planning, Design, Fabrication, Installation of Cumberland Knob Wayside Exhibits - $9,000 (tied to 75th Anniversary - carry over from previous year).
Nine low-profile, fiberglass embedment wayside exhibits with cast aluminum bases. Park staff has carried out the text development and acquired graphics and drawings. Contractor to provide final layout, digital files and fabrication. Park will handle project directly with vendor - Pannier Exhibits. Exhibits to be in place by Memorial Day 2010.
Plan/Design/Produce New Brochure for Cone Manor House - $1,500
This brochure (site bulletin) would focus on the Cone story and provide images and/or floor plan(s) of the Manor House. While some interpretive materials are available to view in the EN area, it is highly congested. Brochure could be used either inside or outside the house and taken home if desired. 9” x 14” b/w, printed both sides. Content development/design/printing 4-5,000 copies.
Replace Existing Matisse Print/Add 2 Others with Frames and Easels - $1,000
The print displayed upstairs in Cone Manor House is faded and showing wear. Replace this print, acquire 2 additional representations from the Cone Sisters Art Collection. Frame all and display on easels.
Meetings with Agricultural Permittees - $250 / meeting.
Room rental fees and heavy refreshments for open house meetings-4 to 6 meetings in the districts to meet and greet permittees.
Architectural Drawings of Camp Catawba Structures - $500 -
ASU professor and students prepare HAER-like architectural detailed drawings of Camp Catawba structures
Rough Ridge Trai l- Expansion of Boardwalk - $8,000
Replacement of existing decking and expansion of existing viewing platform
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