- (December 2006) GETTYSBURG, Pa. - After-hours action by one of the longtime cooperating nonprofits at Gettysburg National Military Park has resulted in an abrupt termination of the organization's operations.

Philadelphia-based Eastern National was ordered by the park to stop selling tickets and making reservations. Instead, the nonprofit Gettysburg Foundation, which is building the park's new museum and visitor center, took over Easern National's obligations on Nov. 1.

Eastern National will continue to run the bookstore at the park, however, till the new visitor center opens in spring 2008.

According to Eastern National President Chesley Moroz the park announced in mid-October that the organization would no longer be responsible for ticket sales to the Electric Map and Cyclorama painting, or reservations for the park's Licensed Battlefield Guides and group tours to the Eisenhower Farm.

Eastern National also lost the contract to perform janitorial services at the visitor center and half-a-dozen historic park buildings that house offices.

The Gettysburg Foundation had been scheduled to take over Eastern National's responsibilities, with the exception of the bookstore, as of fall 2007. But park spokesman Katie Lawhon said advancing the switchover by a year was "directly related" to Eastern National's actions the night of Friday, Sept. 29.

That evening, after the close of business, and "without informing the Park Service," Lawhon said, Eastern National staffers moved the telephones and computers used in making reservations off of park property.
"It was not very well planned," Lawhon said, noting that the move apparently disrupted the system to such an extent that for the following four weeks there were problems of "overselling and overbooking venues."
Fortunately, Lawhon said, the fall is a "pretty quiet time" at the park, reducing the complications that could have occurred.

Moroz said Eastern National's move was intended as a switchover of the services to a new for-profit subsidiary of Eastern called Park Trek. As Park Trek the organization would be able to pick up other ticketing and reservation operations around Gettysburg.

And because Park Trek is for-profit, she explained, it would be "not proper" to operate at the park.
"We obviously didn't feel it was a big deal," and so didn't bother to inform the park of the move, Moroz said. "We did it at the close of the month and at night so it wouldn't be disruptive."

Moroz said Eastern National decided on the move "when we found out we didn't have a future in Gettysburg." Several months ago the decision was made to ease Eastern out. While the Gettysburg Foundation is slated to take over ticketing, reservations and janitorial services, the for-profit Events Network will run the museum store once the new visitor center opens.

Moroz said "the hardest thing for me to accept" when the park moved to terminate Eastern in October was the impact on their 29 affected employees. According to Dru Anne Neil of the Gettysburg Foundation, however, the foundation "spoke to as many of the employees as possible, and we were able to offer a majority of them employment. It was important to us."

The foundation had to purchase new computers and software to handle the ticketing and reservations.
Neil added that when the park approached the foundation about taking over ticketing and reservations a year early, "We were happy to do so." She said the foundation would return to the park the "same percentage, certainly not less" of the sales income that Eastern National supplied.

According to Lawhon, it was Eastern National, not the park, that decided to give up the janitorial services. She stated that the Eastern National employees were "pawns in some of these moves."

Lawhon said the "hard feelings" prompted by Eastern National's actions were "regrettable." But she added, "It's a very good thing to have the Gettysburg Foundation doing reservations a full year and a half ahead of opening the new facility."

Eastern National continues to operate more than 200 stores in national parks across the country. According to Moroz, the organization has operated at Gettysburg battlefield for 50 years.

Moroz acknowledged that Park Trek, launched in April, has yet to win a contract for reservation services, although there were "several proposals on the street."

Our email address is: mail@civilwarnews.com