VIDEO: Portman Highlights How Restore Our Parks Act Would Help Garfield & First Ladies National Historic Sites Address Unmet Maintenance Needs

In a new video, Senator Portman highlights his visits to the First Ladies’ National Historic Site in Canton and the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor. At the First Ladies National Historic Site Portman saw firsthand how his bipartisan Restore Our Parks Act will help address the site’s nearly $1 million in unmet maintenance needs – including building renovations to the Saxton House and First Ladies’ Library Education & Research Center.  Portman also reflects his visit to the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, which currently has $1.2 million in unmet maintenance needs. 

Portman’s Restore Our Parks Act, which was signed into law by President Trump on August 4, will help address the $12 billion backlog in long-delayed maintenance projects at the National Park Service while also supporting more than 100,000 jobs.  

A transcript of the video can be found below and the video can be found here. 

“I’m here at the First Ladies National Historic Site and Library and we’re talking about the need for some improvements here that will come from our Restore Our Parks Act - it was just signed into law by the president last week. Here’s an example of it. We’re at the house where the McKinley’s live. This was where President McKinley and his wife Ida lived, and Ida grew up here. And you can see here where the wood is rotting out. You can push it and see that and these kinds of expenses -- and there’s lots of other windows like this in this house -- are well more than what the Park Service budget is for this property. So it’s an example. We just saw at the library a lot of the bricks are spalling, meaning they are deteriorating and need to be tuck-pointed again -- the mortar needs to be put back in. That’s a huge cost, too. So, you know, by Washington standards, it may not seem like much money, but another couple hundred thousand bucks or so to make these repairs is really important for these places. And that’s what our Restore Our Parks Act is going to do. So I’m proud we finally got it passed. It’s going to make a big difference. I was at the Garfield Presidential Home earlier today, same thing. They have a historic windmill that is falling apart and they need some help there. So the Restore Our Parks Act will go to work right away to ensure that these facilities are there for future generations.” 

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