Concessionaire Managed Campgrounds on the Tahoe NF policy change

[Vladimir]

I received the following from a Forest Service retiree mailing list:

 

"Have you heard what Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn is doing on the Tahoe NF in
Recreation?

He's taking the campgrounds over from concessionaires and the response is
incredibly positive from the public.

Now that we have FLREA to support using collections for the management of
rec facilities, it's no longer a driving need to turn that task over to
private firms. He's hiring very highly degreed folks who are very willing to
work the rec at the GS-7 level and once again we are "wearing the uniform
and badge where the publics can see and talk to agency personnel."

Retirees are estatic about it and I think it would make a great presentation
at the Reunion if it could be squeezed in. Tom's a great speaker."

 

At the time I retired eight years ago the concessionaire program was under what I called the "Brezhnev Doctrine". That is once a Forest Service campground went under concessionaire management it could never revert back to Forest Service management.

 

What is going on on the Tahoe National Forest is interesting. Might want to write letters of support to Tom Quinn. I am sure that there is gonna be one hell of a fight on this issue.

[Kirk W]

Sounds like it should prove to be a good move. Exactly who is Tom Quinn? Is he just in charge of Tahoe Forest or farther up the ladder?

[Vladimir]

He is the Forest Supervisor of the Tahoe National Forest.

[bobsallyh]

Well I sure hope he succeeds. And I hope this is the tip of the iceburg. A number of years ago when the government agencys started contracting the campgrounds out most folks knew what was going to happen down the road. We got involved in a Forest Service contracted cg in Montana 2 summers ago where the contractor tried to pull some shenanigans and we called them out on it. It did get sort of resolved but only because of some pushing and shoving from us and several other folks that got involved. We have never had a "feel good" feeling since then at that cg and the outfit involved.