NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #34; 1 September 2006)

1. DEVELOPERS BREAK FEDERAL LAWS, BUT WILL THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT ACT?
2. DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR COMMENT ON PROPOSED CHANGE IN NARA RESEARCH HOURS
3. PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT ON “PRESERVE AMERICA” PROPOSAL
4. BITS AND BYTES: Information on State Civil Service Requirements Requested; NEH Announces Scholarly Edition Grant Competition; Best High School Essays Announced; NPS Historians’ Directory Published Online
5. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: No posting this week

1. DEVELOPERS BREAK FEDERAL LAWS, BUT WILL THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT ACT?
Civil War battlefield enthusiasts were outraged to learn that developers,
in conjunction with a local utility company, flagrantly violated federal
laws when they trenched some 1,900 feet across the government-owned Harpers
Ferry/Boliver battlefield and then installed a six-inch sewer line and a
16-inch water line without first obtaining the required permits. The
question now is, what are Interior officials prepared to do about it?

The battlefield property was recently donated to the Harpers Ferry National
Historical Park, a unit of the National Park System. When the property
conveyed, an existing utility easement also transferred with the
title. However, in the view of the National Park Service (NPS), the
developers violated federal law as the government owns the land and it has
exclusive authority over all construction activities within the boundary of
a federal park, regardless of the existence of an easement. The developers
were not ignorant of this assertion of federal authority – they were well
aware of the federal permitting process, but when the special-use permit
they requested was not issued in what they considered a timely fashion they
commenced work anyway.

The action has prompted both the National Parks Conservation Association
and the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) to release statements
questioning the legality of the line work. CWPT President James Lighthizer
states, “the developers had neither the authority nor the permits necessary
to do this,” a view mirrored by Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
Superintendent Donald Campbell who stated, “violations of federal law have
occurred, and we are weighing the legal options and considering the steps
with which to proceed.”

But what action can the federal government take now, in that the
“desecration” has already taken place? Without question, the proposed
action by the utility company and the federal permitting that was required
prior to commencement of work by the developer and the utility company,
constituted what is known as a “federal undertaking” and it was subject to
compliance provisions of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA)
as well as several other federal preservation laws. As required by law,
the NPS had solicited public comments on the proposed action. According to
Interior sources, over 100 comments in opposition to issuance of the permit
had been received.

When the developers took direct action and began trenching, the NPS was in
the middle of the compliance process; officials were still soliciting and
assessing comments from other federal and state agencies so as to fully
comply with environmental compliance procedures. Based on public comments
and agency concerns Interior officials had concluded that additional
assessment was warranted and that issuance of the use permit most likely
would be delayed, according to sources inside the Interior department.

Those same sources report that the Assistant Attorney General assigned to
the Department of Justice is now assessing various criminal and civil
options open to the government. Unless the Interior Department acts and
prosecutes those who flaunt the law, preservationists fear that the
inaction of the government to protect the park resources may well signal a
greenlight for other developers to ignore compliance requirements knowing
full well that the federal government will not prosecute such violations.

The NCH has contacted the Interior department and has urged the government
to act quickly and decisively in prosecuting the violators.

2. DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR COMMENT ON PROPOSED CHANGE IN NARA RESEARCH HOURS
The deadline for public comments on the rule recently published in the
Federal Register on proposed changes in the hours for conducting research
at the National Archives Building (DC) and the National Archives facility
at College Park (MD) is drawing near – 8 September. If you have not
already done so, please provide NARA with your views and concerns this week.

As regular readers of this newsletter are aware, NARA is proposing a series
of drastic budget reduction actions in order to address a projected budget
shortfall in the federal government fiscal year (FY 2007) that begins on 1
October. In order to reduce costs of operations, NARA proposes to have
research facilities open 9 a.m. to 5 p. m. Monday through Friday only no
longer would there be evening or Saturday hours. Regional archive
facilities would also modify their extended hours. If approved as drafted,
the rule and the changed hours will go into effect as soon as the new
fiscal year begins – 2 October 2006.

To date nearly 300 comments have been received, but there is still time for
concerned individuals, organizations and institutions to comment on the
proposed changes. Comments must be received by 8 September 2006. A link to
the rule is here.

. Comments may be forwarded via www.regulations.gov .

3. PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT ON “PRESERVE AMERICA” PROPOSAL
Mrs. Laura Bush, the President's wife and Honorary Chair of the “Preserve
America Program” (a White House initiative that encourages and supports
community efforts to preserve and enjoy the nation’s cultural and natural
heritage), has announced that, in cooperation with the Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation (ACHP), she will lead a national “Preserve America
Summit” in October 2006 to mark the 40th anniversary of the passage of the
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.

As part of that effort, a panel of experts representing historic
preservation, education, history, and related fields, has been appointed to
review the major components of the national historic preservation program
in advance of the summit. The panel, which met in Detroit, Michigan, on 8
August, is beginning to consider how best to build a preservation ethic and
public appreciation of history; it is charged to make recommendations
designed to improve the nation’s historical preservation policy and
programs.

Among those appointed to the panel are Heather MacIntosh, President of
Preservation Action; James G. Basker, President of the Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History; Spencer Crew, Executive Director and CEO of
the National Underground Railroad and Freedom Center; and Libby O’Connell,
Senior Vice President/Chief Historian of The History Channel and about a
dozen others. While the historic preservation, museum, and public history
communities are well represented on the panel, substantive representation
from the archival community is noticeably absent, and there is no
representation whatsoever from the higher-education academic history
community.

Nevertheless, the panel is seeking public responses (academics are welcome
to respond) to the following questions: “How can the significance and value
of our authentic heritage resources and appreciation for the importance of
knowing and understanding history be more broadly integrated into our
national consciousness? The panel also wants to know, “ is the present
situation in regard to historic preservation and broad public appreciation
of the importance of history education already sufficient in
America?” E-mail comments should be sent to presethiccomments@achp.gov .

4. BITS AND BYTES:
Item # 1 – Information on State Civil Service Requirements Requested: This
week the NCH received a letter from a historian who had applied for a
vacant historian position with the state of Pennsylvania. But the
applicant was ultimately deemed “ineligible” to apply because, according to
Pennsylvania Civil Service rules, she was not a “resident” of the
state. Now we wonder, just how wide-spread is such a state Civil Service
residency requirement? If you have information about similar or contrary
state Civil Service requirements, please e-mail the editor at
rbcraig@historcoalition.org with whatever information you may have on this
issue. We will publish our findings in a future NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE.

Item #2 – NEH Announces Scholarly Edition Grant Competition: The National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced the annual competition for
Scholarly Editions Grants that support the preparation by a team of at
least two editors and staff of texts and documents that are currently
inaccessible or available in inadequate editions. Projects involving
significant literary, philosophical, and historical materials are typical
in this grant program, but other types of work, such as musical notation,
are also eligible. In applying, applicants will need to demonstrate
familiarity with the best practices recommended by the Association for
Documentary Editing or the Modern Language Association Committee on
Scholarly Editions. This year, there is a new twist on the application
process that has caused some consternation within the documentary edition
community: in keeping with the goals of the NEH Digital Humanities
Initiative, the Scholarly Editions Program now requires that applicants
employ digital technology in the preparation, management, and online
publication of all critical and documentary editions. Also projects that
include TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) conformant transcription and offer
free online access are encouraged and will be given preference. Guidelines
may be found at: http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/editions.html .

Item #3 -- Best High School History Essays Announced: Each year, the
Gilder Lehrman Institute joins with The Concord Review to co-sponsor the
Gilder Lehrman Prize in American History. The prize recognizes exceptional
American history essays submitted to The Concord Review, the only journal
to publish exemplary historical writing by high school students. In 2006
jurors for the Gilder Lehrman Prize in American History were Steven Mintz
(University of Houston, Texas), Sharona Kay (Boca Raton Community High
School, Florida), and Anthony Napoli (Salesian High School, New York, and
the Gilder Lehrman Institute), who deliberated with James Basker (President
of the Gilder Lehrman Institute) to determine the winners. For more on the
program and to read the winning essays, go
to: http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/student6.html .

Item #4 – NPS Historians’ Directory Published Online: The 2006-2007
National Park Service Historians Directory, an electronic edition that
includes the contact information relating to more than 275 historians and
other National Park Service staff who work in parks and communities across
the United States and its territories. To download and save the latest
copy (PDF; 1.54 MB) from the Park History website, go
to: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/NPShistorians06.pdf .

5. ARTICLES OF INTEREST
One posting this week: No posting this week.