Vote put off on Washington Crossing park

Washington Crossing Historic Park got a reprieve yesterday when state officials postponed a vote on closing its crumbling visitor center.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission unanimously voted to put off the decision on the Bucks County site until its June 17 meeting in Harrisburg.

The news was darker for the Brandywine Battlefield Historic Site near Chadds Ford. The commission yesterday identified it as one of six state historic sites where staff and programs will be slashed or eliminated due to budget cuts.

"The highest and best use of the site is as a local park and open space," the report said, adding that volunteers would likely maintain a "limited schedule" of programs.

The commission, which operates 23 museums and historic sites, faces a $1.8 million cut in its operating budget cut and is looking to slash staffing.

For Washington Crossing, the delay will allow time for a public hearing on the needs of the site and give public officials and civic leaders more time to organize and look for other funding sources to help repair the visitor center.

"That's great news," said Hilary Krueger Jebitsch, administrator of the 500-acre park, where more than 200 supporters held a Save Our Park rally yesterday. Staying open through June will also enable numerous scheduled school tours to take place, she said.

The commission's staff had recommended that the visitor center be closed temporarily because of a badly leaking roof and other deficiencies.

For Brandywine, the decision to eliminate staff and programs also was delayed until June. But because it was targeted for budgetary, not safety, reasons, supporters have fewer options.

"In 1777 we fought redcoats. In 2009 we fight red ink," said Linda Kaat, president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates, a nonprofit group that supports the Delaware County site.

"It was the main battle to protect Philadelphia," said author Bruce Mowday, who has chronicled the Sept. 11, 1777, defeat of George Washington's troops by the British. "The Continental Congress had to flee after that."

Shuttering Brandywine would be "a tremendous loss," said Chadds Ford Supervisor George Thorpe.

"There are things that are important, and this should rank toward the top," he said. "It should not be closed or changed in any fashion."