Politics & Government

Glen Echo Park Reopens After the Shutdown

The park is back in business.

Montgomery County's Glen Echo Park reopened Thursday, Oct. 17, after being closed for 16 days as part of the federal government shutdown.

The park is a national park with locally managed programs and facilities. Its arts and cultural programs receive no federal funds, and are run by the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture, created in 2002 by Montgomery County, according to a news release from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.

Many of those programs were either moved to other locations or cancelled during the shutdown, Patch reported.

The partnership and its nonprofit partners—which include the Adventure Theatre Musical Theater Centerthe Puppet Co., dance organizations and visual artists—were "barred from entering the park [during the shutdown] and [could not] retrieve their property or collect their mail. According to the [Glen Echo] Partnership, the negative impact to their organizations [amounted] to losses of approximately $25,000 a day," a county news release stated earlier this week.

"The financial impact of the closure thus far is potentially devastating," Katey Boerner, executive director of the Glen Echo Park Partnership, said earlier this week.

On Tuesday, County Executive Isiah Leggett told the National Park Service that if the park was not open by Thursday, he would see to it that it was opened on Friday.

But, on Thursday, the park reopened, according to its website, whose homepage featured a message that said:

"The government shutdown has ended and Glen Echo Park is now open! All classes and programs will resume as scheduled (unless otherwise notified by an instructor). Please check www.adventuretheatre-mtc-org and www.thepuppetco.org for theater schedules.

Did you miss classes or work at the park because of the shutdown? Tell us in the comments.


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