DENVER—In a press release issued by Xanterra Parks & Resorts, Xanterra says it has found it necessary to file a motion for a preliminary injunction in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado asking the court to step in to essentially keep the NPS from having to shut down most visitor services on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.
Unless the Court grants the preliminary injunction Xanterra seeks in this motion, Xanterra argues that the primary visitor services (restaurants, hotels, mule rides and basic services) at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park will likely shut down at midnight on December 31, 2014, resulting in irreparable harm not only to Xanterra and its more than 1,000 employees, but also to the Northern Arizona economy and the public at large.
The most arbitrary act that has led to this state of affairs is NPS’ decision to allocate too much NPS-controlled employee housing in the Park to the new smaller contract and so little housing to the new larger contract, with the result that it is not possible to house many employees needed to perform under the larger contract. Xanterra has exhausted every available means to warn NPS about the many problems this misallocation has created and has repeatedly proposed viable solutions. But each time, over a period now exceeding 15 months, NPS has refused to fix this fundamental defect. Instead, it has suggested alternatives that would, for example, require Xanterra to permanently triple bunk adults working full-time into small, old, hastily winterized cabins.
By refusing to change its original allocation of employee housing between the new contracts and pursuing plans to reduce the investment amounts needed to take on the new larger contract, NPS has ended up issuing solicitation after solicitation for the new larger contract that no company will bid on because of the unreasonable terms. Instead of increasing competition for the new larger contract, NPS has done the opposite and eliminated it. Xanterra’s motion maintains that NPS’ actions on the new larger contract solicitation should be set aside under the Administrative Procedure Act because they are arbitrary and capricious and flout NPS’s statutory and regulatory obligations.
“The NPS has created a dire situation at the Grand Canyon because both of the existing contracts expire on December 31, 2014,” said Andrew N. Todd, President and CEO of Xanterra. “We are asking to maintain status quo with both existing contracts so that the NPS can address the housing problem, which may become intractable if the new smaller contract takes effect on January 1, 2015, as planned. If the housing problem is not solved now, visitors to the Park in January 2015 may find the many lodges, restaurants and other essential facilities that Xanterra previously ran shuttered.”
Go to Xanterra Parks & Resorts.
