VNP on contingency list for $233,000

More than $750 million in stimulus money will go to restore and repair national parks nationwide, including about $55.8 million for the National Mall. About $30 million will go to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, $18 million to repair a Jefferson Memorial sea wall and $7.3 million to restore the District of Columbia War Memorial, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Locally, Voyageurs National Park will get about $233,000 through a contingency list of projects.

VNP Superintendent Mike Ward said Wednesday that getting money through the contingency list allows work to begin this summer, with the primary portion of the project to be conducted next spring and summer.

“We’re on a contingency, so we’re not on the list sent out to the public, but we’re being processed for next year,” he said.

The money will be used to rehabilitate campsites in Voyageurs. Most of that work will occur on the Namakan basin, where campsites adopted by the park many years ago from previous owners, Boise Cascade and the state of Minnesota, have never been rehabilitated.

The work will include new fire rings and tent pads, and installation of larger bear lockers, Ward said.

Nationally, projects receiving money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are expected to save or create at least 20,000 jobs, he said.

The VNP projects should help Borderland, said Ward.

“We’ll be purchasing a lot of the materials this year and that should have an effect on the local economy,” said Ward.

Ward said 38 campsites, including some on Rainy Lake, were targeted for rehabilitation, but more are likely to be completed.

Campsites under rehab will be closed to the public. Lists of the campsites and how long it is anticipated they will be closed will be made public, he said.

Rehabilitation is expected to be completed at each site in less than five working days. He said workers will attempt not to close campsites over weekends.

“Some will only be closed a day or two and then reopened,” he said.

Ward also noted that other funding made available to the park has allowed Voyageurs to hire nearly 20 additional seasonal workers on top of what it normally hires.

“That’s good for the local economies, too,” he said, noting that workers have been hired from communities ranging from International Falls south to the Orr area.

Meanwhile, Ward has been spending as much time in the park as possible, he said. He became superintendent at Voyageurs in August, after serving as superintendent at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, Mo.

“I’m having fun,” he said.

He recently helped VNP and Department of Natural Resources staff process and tag sturgeon. He reported that data and samples were collected from about 140 sturgeon.

“I got to see a fish I have never seen before in my life,” he said. “I got to net and release one. It’s an incredible fish.”

He noted that a photo of himself holding a 50-pound sturgeon now hangs next to a picture of Pres. Barack Obama and Salazar.

In addition, Ward spent Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon viewing visitor destination sites and historic sites that may be designated visitor destinations.

“At some places we may be able to put in docks and day-use areas, places like Oveson’s fishing camp on Rainy and Kabetogama’s Hoist Bay,” he said. “And we’re looking at installing interpretive media, where people can hear the story of what actually happened there.”

The park has recently developed a brochure about the 18 different visitor destination sites now in the park.

Meanwhile, other projects that will benefit from stimulus money include $26 million to repair buildings and a sea wall at New York’s Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants first entered the country; $5 million to refurbish Philadelphia’s Independence Hall; $13.1 million to demolish and replace condemned portions of the Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah; and $54.7 million for dam removal and other projects at Olympic National Park in Washington state.

The $787 billion stimulus law, signed by Pres. Barack Obama in February, assigned $750 million to the National Park Services for renovations and repairs, but left specifics up to the agency.

Acting National Park Service Director Dan Wenk said the agency will fix trails and roads, improve visitor centers and complete overdue maintenance on buildings and roads.

‘‘We will be as careful stewards of the American people’s money as we are of their parks,’’ Wenk said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.