Why closing parks makes no sense

•  New York was the first state in the nation to have a State Park and a historic site.
• Parks and historic sites create jobs where they are most needed: in rural areas and inner cities.
• New York State Parks and historic sites create $5 in revenue for every $1 the state spends.
• NY State Parks generate nearly $2 billion in statewide economic activity each year.
• The New York Sate Parks system generates about 20,000 jobs.
• only about $6 Million are needed to keep all of NY state's parks open
• NY state parks have been starved over the years; funding to parks has been cut 20% last year and another 20% this year.
• 56 Million people visited New York State Parks and historic sites in the last year.
• More than 250,000 people visited Thacher Park in the last  year.
• The economic situation may be grave, but even during the Great Depression parks remained open!
•  Thacher Park offers over 12 miles of hiking, snow-shoeing and skiing trails, numerous picnic areas and pavilions. And, of course, the unique Indian Ladder Trail, built and used in the late 1570s by Mohawk Indians. 
• Because of its age, Thacher Park is a treasure trove for palaeontologists and geologists. It is one of the most fossiliferous regions in the United States.
• Thacher Park features nature walks, snow-shoe hikes, yoga hikes, and family festivals such as the Fall Festival, the Wool Gathering and the Winter Chill Out, among others.  All of this would disappear if the park closes. 
• Many schools take their students on field trips to Thacher Park. For many students this is the place where they first study salamanders and other wild-life.
• Thacher Park is a wildlife conservation area with a prolific variety of plants and animals.
• The logistics of closing parks has not been well thought out

  1) How DO you close a park that has a major highway go through it? Do you fence it all off? That would be costly. If not fenced off, what happens to people who trespass? What about their safety on trails that have not been maintained? What about the cliff?

  2) Thompsons Lake State Park, abutting Thacher Park, is not slated to be closed. However, its camp ground has a sewage plant and a water treatment plant, both situated on Thacher Park Land. If you close Thacher Park, who maintains the water treatment and sewage plants? Who pays the electricity bills?

  3) The Long Path, which begins at the George Washington Bridge, is part of the Thacher Park trails system. If the park is closed, will people still be able to use it?

  4) Thacher Park contains snow mobile trails which bring in revenues to the state. Why would one close those?

  5) Thacher Park is part of on-going research programs. What will happen to those?