NASHVILLE – The Haslam administration is abandoning all efforts to outsource management of Fall Creek Falls State Park and other state parks and will instead leave the volatile issue of privatizing operations to Tennessee’s next governor.
State Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner Bob Martineau made the announcement Thursday during an appearance before a legislative study committee taking a critical look at administration outsourcing across state government.
The legislation was spurred in part by administration efforts to outsource Fall Creek Falls State Park, located in remote Van Buren and Bledsoe counties near Spencer, Tenn., atop the Upper Cumberland Plateau.
Martineau said his focus now is to use the estimated $138 million previously approved for state parks’ capital needs over the past five years to begin addressing decades of ignored capital needs at a variety of parks.
That includes tearing down and constructing a new inn at Fall Creeks Falls State Park, Martineau said.