Longtime Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program director resigns; grants suspended

Kaisa Barthuli, a director for the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program for more than two decades, stepped down last week, and its grant program has been suspended.

Barthuli sent an email on March 8, stating that with “sadness and deep gratitude” she was “leaving federal service” that day.

Barely a week before, Barthuli had attended a Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership meeting in Albuquerque.

Longtime Route 66 advocate Jim Hinckley posted the full email on the Facebook page of the Route 66 Centennial Initiative. It states in part:

It has been the truest pleasure to work with each one of you to preserve and revitalize our beloved mother road. All the work you each do, and all the work we have done in collaboration has made a huge impact to preserve the stories, places and authentic experiences of the road.

As I leave my post here at the NPS, I urge us all to continue the good work of raising awareness about the history and significance of Route 66 and the importance of preserving it. Why is it important? It is important because it speaks to the spirit of our nation, and our very identity. The road connects us to our past, and how we got to who and where we are today. The road is about connection, and also about the movement of people, ideas, culture, commerce and so much more through space and time. The buildings, pavement and bridges are tangible links to the stories and values of our past, and so how we tend to them is how we tend to ourselves. Preservation of our beloved road – while balancing the needs and values of today – preserves our history while creating important economic and community development opportunities for the benefit of current and future generations.

It has been an honor to support these efforts through the years, and to build upon the NPS program legacy that Michael Taylor began in 2001. Through the years, we’ve been able to work with all of you, the World Monuments Fund, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to create a forum for national collaboration now known as the Road Ahead Partnership (centennial website coming soon), which will continue to operate as a single national voice for Route 66. We also facilitated a robust collaboration of archives, museums and libraries on Route 66 known as Research Route 66, which will continue to support research, education and archival efforts on the Mother Road. In total, the NPS has awarded 180 grant projects, and raised the number of Route 66 National Register listed properties to well over 250. We conducted baseline historic property inventory surveys in all the states, and more recently, in collaboration with State Historic Preservation offices in MO, KS, OK, TX and NM, property re-surveys were conducted to assess the rate of change over the past 20 years (Note: IL, AZ and CA weren’t included because not enough time has passed since baseline surveys were completed to yield meaningful info on rates of change). On average, the re-survey efforts revealed that there has been 25% loss of buildings over a 20-year period. This underscores the reality that preservation work is never done and while we all know that everything cannot and should not be saved, we must regard these numbers with concern and continue our all-important advocacy work. For your information, all original and re-survey data and reports are archived at the respective State Historic Preservation Offices, for perpetuity.

Barthuli also stated the NPS would not offer Route 66 grants this year.

Since 2001, the grant program awarded 179 projects a total of $2.72 million, with $4.5 million in cost-share matches, totaling $7.10 million in public-private investment toward the Route 66 corridor.

The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program for years had urged the Route 66 community to set up other grant programs.

Thanks to several states and Route 66 associations, that has largely happened in recent years. A page on the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program website lists numerous grant resources.

“This list is testimony to everyone’s incredible advocacy work, it is thrilling to see the level of support and interest in Route 66 grow at nonprofit, state and other levels, especially as we approach the centennial,” Barthuli wrote in her email.

Messages to Barthuli’s email and Facebook Messenger account requesting comment or clarification went unanswered. A call this week to her NPS office phone contained a voice message from Barthuli, but its voicemail box was full.

President Donald Trump’s administration already has imposed a number of layoffs to probationary workers, and a new report stated it wants a 30% payroll cut of the NPS workforce.

(Screen-capture image from National Park Service video of Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program director Kaisa Barthuli at the Rio Puerco Bridge west of Albuquerque)