NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE March 1, 2011 Rose Harvey Acting Commissioner Office of Parks, Recreation And Historic Preservation Empire State Plaza, Agency Bldg. 1 Albany, NY 12238 Dear Acting Commissioner Harvey: Last year the Legislature added $11 million to the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation’s (OPRHP) budget subsequent to being threatened with 55 state park and historic site closures. At that time we trusted the Office when its highest officials assured us that this sum was sufficieat w heep ull uPuut parks arid listorie sites open. Instead, during the late part of last year, OPRHP did not notify or consult the legislature before acting unilaterally to close four state parks—Herkimer Home, Knox Farm, Joseph Davis, and Woodlawn Beach. We are deeply concemed that for the first time in New York State history state parks and historic sites have been closed and write to request specific policy adjustments and information, Both the legislature and the general public that we serve believe OPRHP”s mission is a public trust to care for and appropriately make best use of some of our state’s most precious assets: its parks and historic sites. ‘This expectation is clearly defined in law: Parks, recreation and historic preservation §3.02 Guiding principles. The office shall operate and maintain the state park, recreation and historic site system to conserve, protect and enhance the natural, ecological, historic, cultural and recreational resources contained therein and to provide for the public enjoyment of and access to these resources in a manner which will protect them for future generations, With these principles very much in mind four of the signatories of this letter including Assemblymembers Butler, Englebright, and McEneny and Senator Seward met at Herkimer Home State Historic Park on February 9, 2011. Our purpose was to lean more about this park, listen to concerned local citizens, understand why Herkimer Hame State Historic Site was selected for closure, and discuss possible alternatives, 2Although we wete fiustated in our effort to discover why Herkimer Home was selected for closure we met many wonderfully motivated local citizens, learned much about the economic and historic importance of this site, and became convinced that this beautiful park thal adjoins the New York State Thruway is vitally important to the cultural tourism industry of Central New York. Une ot the great heroes of the American Revolution, General Nicholas Herkimer—a man ‘who gave his life to the birth of the American nation and for whom the County of Herkimer is named—is buried with members of his family and other Revolutionary War veterans within this exceptional one hundred and sixty-five acre state park, We were informed that General Herkimer’s grave was acquired by action of the Legislature in 1895 and that his 18" century home and farm were authorized for acquisition hy the Legislature in 1913. Although we had previously been informed otherwise we leamed that there are numerous firearms, documents, pieces of furniture, and other utilitarian and ornamental objects with specific provenance to Herkimer Home Historic Site, General Herkimer, and his family. We also learned that your office has ordered all of these museum quality objects to be removed and relocated to an uncertain future in storage elsewhere, In the days following our site visit we explored the big unanswered question which why was Herkimer Home State Historie Site chosen for closure and was it legal to do so? At this time we do not have satisfactory answers to this question. There seems to be no language within the existing parks, recreation and historic preservation law where authority is given by the legislature to the Commissioner of OPRHP or any other officer of the state to close to the public any state park or historic site, Rather, what is written under the “powers and duties” section of the statue is the explicit requirement that the Commissioner acquire and establish state parks and historic sites as well as operate and maintain them. Itis troubling that your office has apparently interpreted that the Legislature's conveyance of significant power to the Commissioner to care for state park lands was also meant to enable him or her to act in a harmful way toward those same public assets. We believe that neither closing a site nor removing its collection objects is authorized in the language of the existing statute. The Commissioner should have sought legislative authorization before closing Herkimer Home and/or other state parks, We note with concern that Herkimer Home is one of the eleven original sites that in 1972 was named by the Legislature as an official historic site that “heretofore acquired, established. or designated by law shall be continued in the office snhject ta the prow of this article and chapter.” (N.Y. Parks, Rec. & Hist. Preserv. Law §19.05) The words “shall be continued in the office” seem quite clear to us as a specific instruction to the Commissioner that may not be ignored, disregarded, contravened, or abrogated without new legislation.Within thio context we request that you inuuediately reopen the Herkimer Home Historie Site and rescind your order to remove its historic collections, ‘Your agency has both internal and external protocols and expectations for major policy change regarding the parks system and all of its parts. Please provide each of the tourism chairs of, respectively, the New York State Senate and Assembly with the following information as t may be relevant to the closure ot Herkimer Home, Woodlawn Beach, Joseph Davis, and Knox Farm State Parks: 1 ‘A complete copy of all documents prepared to conform with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) relating to the closure of each of the above-referenced parks including all published notifications within the Environmental Notice Bulletin of the Department of Environmental Conservation. If no such SEQRA process was carried out we ask for an explanation of why OPRHP apparently believes that closure of a state park will not have any adverse environmental impact and does not constitute a Type | action within the meaning of ECL §617 including, particularly, §617.4 and §617.7e(1)v. From newspaper accounts it is our understanding that after first closing Woodlawn Beach, Knox Farm. and Joseph Davis State Parke, OPRHP has recently entered into contracts with the towns of Hamburg, Aurora, and Lewiston to operate these parks. Please provide dated copies of these contracts and all telated correspondence inchiding documents that demonstrate compliance with SEQRA under §617.4(2)4. Copies of all documents including letters, written meeting agendas, and minutes in which the planned closing of any parka was discussed, voted on, and/or approved by the New York State Council of Parks, and/or, as appropriate, the State Board for Historie Preservation. Conversely, if these bodies and each of their members were not consulted prior to these closures, then we ask thal you explain why their advisory purpose was not utilized. Copies of all documents relating to whether any of these parks received Land and ‘Water Conservation Funding and what closing any such park would mean to the State. On March 31, 2010 then Governor Paterson received a letter from the National Park Service that indicated possible removal of New York State from eligibility to participate in the LWCF program as well as possible initiation of suspension and debarment procedures to withhold all Federal funds from the State if any state park that had received LWCF in the past was closed to the publie. It is our understanding that Joseph Davis State Park, for example, received $9,750 in 1976 and $31,101 in 1979 from the LWCF. Please explain: (a) how closure of this park has not been a direct violation of the National Park Service's policy and, thereby, a risk for the possible loss of Federal funds and (b) what written assurances OPRHP received prior to entering into contracts with local towns that such surrogate operation of parkland is consistent with the spirit and intent of NPS policy? An itemized breakdown of the annual vi jon for each of the closed parks as well as what the annual monetary differential would be in the event of continued closure,6. Similarly, as we learned last year, with the threat to close John Boyd Thacher State Path, a simple clause in the deed of a New York State Park can make them legally problematic to close. Please send us copies of all deed resttictions as well as gift or sale agreements for each of the above referenced parks. 7. A copy of all the previous and prospective security and maintenance plans for each of the closed parks. 8. A description of how closure was carried out at Herkimer Home Historic Site as well as each of the above-referenced parks consistent with the archeological policies of OPRHP and the policies, requirements, and expectations of the State and National Registers. Please also provide a copy of any written notification or other communication between your office and the national office of the National Register of Historie Places, 9. A-copy of all correspondence or documents relating to the decision to abandon General Herkimer’s grave and memorial obelisk as well as a copy of all information relating to the agency’s policy for the abandonment of any historic cemetery. 10. It appears that the closure of the Herkimer Home Historic Site may constitute an abandonment of a grave site. Under N.Y. Jur. 2d Cemeteries and Dead Bodies §63 if'a cemetery, ather than a private one, is abandoned that cemetery becomes the responsibility of the town board. Please provide copies of all correspondence between the OPRHP and the Town of Danube regarding what may be that town’s new responsibility to care for the graveyard that includes the gravesite of Gencral Herkimer and why your office believes that such arrangement conforms to the intent of the Legislature. 11. A complete disclosure, description, and listing of all capital improvements made to any of the above-referenced state parks in the past for which any debt obligation is still outstanding, Please include the amount spent and the dates of both initial debt obligation and anticipated retirement of obligation. 12. It is our understanding that Mrs, Jean Read Knox who is both your Niagara Regional Commission Chairperson and that member of the famously civic- minded Knox family who most actively facilitated the transtormation of a 633- acre family estate into the Knox Farm State Park may not have been consulted before Knox Farm Park was ordered closed. Please advise us if this understanding is unfounded and provide copies of all documents, including letters, written ‘meeting agendas, and minutes in which the planned closing of any parks was discussed, voted on, and/or approved by the regional commissions of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historie Preservation for the Central and Niagara regions, In closing, we reiterate our request that OPRHP immediately reopen the Herkimer Home Historie Site and the other state parks that have been closed. These public. acsots are held in trust by your agency and should be immediately restored to their normal public use and access unless and until the legislature authorizes otherwise and all other relevant, lawful procedures are followed. We also request a new, more cooperative dynamic and dialoguewith your agency that enables us all to better serve our common constituency: the citizens of New Yuk State, Sincerely, Ste En nbunt ‘Assemblyman Steven Engiébright fit” iblyman Mare Butler ator James L. Seward od M. Serrano Assemblyman John J. McEneny