Wildwood Stables at Acadia National Park

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Linda B. Merims lbm@ici.net

Hi, Folks;

What is really going on at Acadia?  It is difficult to know.
Mr. Winterberg, the concessionaire who runs Wildwood Stables,
the overnight horse camping facility at Acadia, maintains that
the Park Service's move to immediately remove him as concessionaire
is at least partly a ruse to get rid of overnight horse camping
altogether and perhaps (it would seem from the emails he
has been sending to his customers and which have been forwarded
and posted on this newsgroup) to get rid of horses in Acadia
altogether.

The version of the story coming from the other side
is that Mr. Winterberg screwed up *big time* with the
legal aspects of which legal entity actually held the
carriage and overnight camping concession at Acadia and
that the Park Service got caught holding a very ugly
liability bag and has good grounds to remove Mr. Winterberg
as concessionaire.  See the newspaper article below.
(The confusion over which corporation held the concession
at Wildwood is all the more puzzling since--I have been told--
Mr. Winterberg is himself an attorney.)  In this version
of the story, horse use of Acadia, including overnight
camping, is not in jeopardy.  It will resume as soon as
the Park Service can contract with another concessionaire.
Admittedly, it is likely dead for this year.

Personally, I like the suggestion Vicki Varney sent to
me in a private email--to write to the Park Service emphasizing:

 - How important it is to the New England horse community to
   have *horse camping* at Acadia,

 - To encourage them to expedite the issue,

 - And most specifically to make clear that if a request
   for proposal goes out for a replacement concessionaire,
   that the RFP *must* include a provision that the
   concessionarie must provide overnight horse camping (not
   just carriage rides) and to at least the level and capacity
   that has been provided by Mr. Winterberg at Wildwood.

I don't know who's "right" here, but I suspect it is better
to keep the two issues (horse camping and Mr. Winterberg)
separate and not hang our hats on an entity that may be
a losing cause.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA

Here is the newspaper article.  I'm not sure which newspaper it is
actually from.

>From: KMFB62@aol.com
>Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 21:29:18 EDT
>Subject: Fwd: News Article on Acadia -FYI
>To: bstra@ma.ultranet.com
>X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 105
>
>In a message dated 5/18/00 10:34:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
>irideprom@yahoo.com writes:
>
><< 
>                        WILDWOOD STABLE OPERATOR'S FATE
> UNCERTAIN
> 
>      by Anne Kozak
> 
> 
>         ACADIA NAT'L. PARK---Ed Winterberg, the operator of
> Wildwood
>      Stables and carriage rides in Acadia, has been told by
> the park
>      service that his contract is null and void.  Mr.
> Winterberg is
>      appealing that decision to National Park Service
> director Bob Stanton.
> 
>         Last fall, a visitor was injured at Wildwood.
> Shortly after the
>      victim's lawyer contacted park officials for the name
> of the parent
>      organization, which park records showed as Kentucky
> Carriage and
>      Livery Inc. -- the name Mr. Winterberg used when he
> first obtained a
>      concessions permit in 1986 and continued to use.
> 
>         A few days later, the lawyer informed the park that
> Kentucky
>      Carriage and Livery had been dissolved as a
> corporation.  This
>      triggered a review of documents pertaining to Mr.
> Winterberg's permit,
>      said superintendent Paul Haertel.  After examining the
> documents, the
>      park service deemed the permit null and void.
> 
>         Regional director Marie Rust informed Mr. Winterberg
> of this in
>      late April and gave him 60 days to vacate the premises.
> Mr.
>      Winterberg appealed the decision to Ms. Rust, who last
> Friday denied
>      his appeal.
> 
>         In his letter to Director Stanton, which Mr.
> Winterberg forwarded
>      to the TIMES, Mr. Winterberg acknowledges that he began
> the concession
>      in 1986 as Kentucky Carriage and Livery, Inc.  Because
> his business
>      was primarily located in Acadia, in 1989 he dissolved
> the Kentucky
>      company and incorporated under the name Wildwood
> Management Inc.
> 
>         "It appears that in 1989 I made a mistake," writes
> Mr. Winterberg.
>      "I did not inform all the park people I should have of
> the corporate
>      change.  It appears that when it was brought to the
> attention of the
>      National Park Service they did not inform me of this
> oversight so that
>      a simple administrative solution could be found."
> 
>         Yet in 1994, Mr. Winterberg renewed a concessions
> permit issued to
>      Kentucky Carriage and Livery, and signed extensions of
> that permit in
>      1996, 1998 and 1999, noted deputy superintendent Len
> Bobinchock.
> 
>         Although in his letter to Mr. Stanton, Mr.
> Winterberg attributes
>      the change in names of his corporation to the fact that
> his business
>      interests were primarily in Acadia, his letterhead on
> official
>      correspondence in May 1999 lists both a Seal Harbor and
> Ryland, Ky.,
>      address.  The cover sheet for the fax received by the
> TIMES this week
>      also shows two addresses.
> 
>         But the appeal to Mr. Stanton is written on
> letterhead showing only
>      the Seal Harbor address.
> 
>         In the letter to Mr. Stanton, Mr. Winterberg writes
> that he "will
>      be appealing this decision to your office in hopes that
> a common-sense
>      solution can be found so that I can continue serving
> visitors to
>      Acadia National Park."
> 
>         Mr. Haertel said his staff is examining ways to
> accommodate
>      equestrians who camp at Wildwood and stable horses
> there.  Whether or
>      not carriage rides will be offered this year is up in
> the air, as
>      well.
> 
>  >>
>