Mammoth Cave National Park opens again, for now

MAMMOTH CAVE, Ky.-The government has re-opened and national parks across the country are removing blockades and shutters. Mammoth Cave National Park is now open to visitors and staff for the first time in more than 30 days.

Tours and excursions have resumed at the park.

“Coming from Philadelphia everything was closed, so it’s nice coming around the way back we can come see some national parks here,” said one visitor.

Staff at Mammoth Cave say they’re excited to be back at work.

“Coming back and being able to be back at work and see each other and see park visitors has been very exciting for them. We’re glad to be back and doing what we like to do,” said Molly Schroer, public information officer at Mammoth Cave.

Now that the park is open, staff are busy getting everything back to standard.

“There’s a lot of just housekeeping things that need to take place here at the park. We’ve got maintenance crews checking on buildings and different systems to make sure everything’s operational,” said Schroer.

During the shutdown some maintenance at the park continued.

“We’ve had our Friends of Mammoth Cave here staffing the visitor’s center. In addition, Ortega National Parks helped us out by emptying a lot of our trash cans,” said Schroer.

Park employees have been waiting weeks to get paid. Now that the park is back open, administration is doing everything they can to make sure employees are paid before the government possibly shuts down again.

“The priority of the park is to get employees paid. So, our administrative team has been working very hard today to get the time and payroll input and processed so we can get the back pay for the employees who have been off for the last 35 days.” Said Schroer.

Schroer says everyone at the park is focused on moving forward.