National Park Service

What does it feel like to be 100 years old? "Just like it does to be 99," said a smiling Grace Monteith, her hands folded firmly across the pocketbook in her lap. "I don't feel any older, unless I'm trying to get in and out of a car. " Monteith, who will celebrate her 101st birthday in July, was the guest of honor yesterday at the National Park Service's annual gathering of volunteers, held at Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church on Columbus Boulevard. She has devoted as many as 2,000 hours of volunteer service to the Deshler Morris House in Germantown and may be the country's oldest volunteer, said Stephen Sitarski, VIP coordinator for the Park Service.

Gene A. Woock, 75, of Fairmount, a resource specialist with the National Park Service, died Wednesday, March 14, of leukemia at home. Mr. Woock was with the National Park Service in Philadelphia from 1990 until retiring in 2002. His projects included developing hiking and biking trails over abandoned rail beds, his wife, Patricia Pronz Woock, said. Before moving to Philadelphia, Mr. Woock studied water management for two years on a fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and then was on the staff of the university's Sea Grant Institute for 10 years.

Continental Army troops who tangled with the British at Germantown in October 1777 made "Remember Paoli" their battle cry - so fresh was the memory of the British midnight raid weeks earlier that left 53 Americans dead in a Chester County cornfield. Now another group of patriots is sounding the same cry - summoning memories of the Paoli Massacre in a campaign to save the 40-acre battlefield site from development. So far, they've rallied much of the region's congressional delegation, local officials and history buffs.

The National Park Service's top administrator for the New England states has been named director of the agency's Mid-Atlantic region headquartered here, officials confirmed yesterday. Marie Rust, a 22-year veteran of the service and the only woman among the agency's 10 regional directors, was named to the regional post here effective Monday, said Park Service spokeswoman Josie Fernandez. Rust replaces B.J. Griffin - formerly the second woman among the 10 regional directors - who becomes superintendent of Yosemite National Park in California.

As an expert in monument preservation, Dennis Montagna has to be a craftsman, a good listener, and even a bit of an athlete. Montagna, 50, directs the National Park Service's monument research and preservation program. It is a job that takes him from his Narberth home to cemeteries and battlefields around the country. Much of his work is done outside, sometimes on scaffolds. "There's a lot that's physical," he said. He also said he has to be a good communicator. "It's a problem-solving kind of job," he said.

Saying that the city government failed to meet the conditions of a 1991 federal grant for the renovation of a community center, the National Park Service is demanding that the city pay back more than $201,000. The city got a $250,000 grant from the Park Service three years ago to help cover part of the cost of refurbishing the former Eyre Drive YMCA, which the city had bought for use as a community center. The grant was to be used, among other things, to repair lockers and showers, fix up the gymnasium, and repair the heating, air-conditioning, and electrical systems.

CHARTING THEIR COURSE, Joan Batory of the National Park Service confers with Lt. Walt O'Brien, skipper of the Coast Guard cutter Red Oak, during an island-hopping trip up the Delaware River. The trip yesterday was part of a National Park Service survey of 55 river islands to determine whether they should be developed or protected.

On a crisp autumn day, Chuck Weisman of the National Park Service yesterday got a closeup on the leafy state of affairs at Valley Forge Park. An answer to whether today - and the weekend - will be ideal for horsing around is in the Accu-Weather forecast, on Page 14.

Valley Forge National Historical Park hit a $375,000 jackpot yesterday as the winners were announced in the first round of grants under the National Park Service's new Centennial Challenge. All three projects submitted by the park were selected for funding: a new connector trail and multimedia show at Washington's Headquarters and an expansion of the popular Once Upon a Nation programs in the park. "It is a great honor to get three projects on this initial list," park superintendent Michael Caldwell said.

Eight historical buildings became history yesterday when their doors shut to tourists. More closings will follow if federal funds don't fill an expected $850,000 budget deficit, according to National Park Service officials. "It's not over yet," said Assistant Superintendent Bernard Goodman of Independence National Historical Park. "Additional buildings will have to close . . . The question is: How many will have to close? There aren't that many left. " The eight tourist attractions - including Old City Hall and the Second Bank of the United States - are expected to remain closed at least a year, Goodman said.

Gene A. Woock, 75, of Fairmount, a resource specialist with the National Park Service, died Wednesday, March 14, of leukemia at home. Mr. Woock was with the National Park Service in Philadelphia from 1990 until retiring in 2002. His projects included developing hiking and biking trails over abandoned rail beds, his wife, Patricia Pronz Woock, said. Before moving to Philadelphia, Mr. Woock studied water management for two years on a fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and then was on the staff of the university's Sea Grant Institute for 10 years.

WASHINGTON - The earthquake-damaged Washington Monument has extensive cracking and chipped stones near its peak that have left it highly vulnerable to rainfall, and inspectors found cracks and loose stones along the entire length of the 555-foot structure, according to a report released Thursday by the National Park Service. The report was prepared by the engineering firm whose employees rappelled down the sides of the monument in September to inspect the damage. It offers the most detailed portrait yet of the condition of the 127-year-old monument, which has been closed to visitors since a 5.8-magnitude quake shook the nation's capital on Aug. 23. The report does not estimate how long repairs would take or how much they would cost.

PATERSON - A waterfall in the heart of northern New Jersey's industrial complex that was once featured on The Sopranos was dedicated as America's 397th national park Monday. The 77-foot Great Falls in downtown Paterson inspired generations of newcomers to America and was memorialized by the poet William Carlos Williams. It was given the national park designation in a ceremony attended by New Jersey officials, local schoolchildren, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and the head of the National Park Service.

Bruce Cole, the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities who has been president and chief executive of the American Revolution Center for the last 21/2 years, has resigned. Cole, who is returning to writing and scholarship, will continue to serve as an adviser to the center's board. Last fall, the center completed a land-exchange deal with the National Park Service, and it has now taken over the site of the former Independence National Historical Park archaeology laboratory at Third and Chestnut Streets.

HARRISBURG - A leading environmental group has written to the National Park Service alleging that Pennsylvania is violating federal law by allowing natural gas drilling activity on protected state lands. The Sierra Club says the state should halt all drilling and permitting in state parks and forests until it complies with review requirements under a federal law that dates to the mid-1960s, the Land and Water Conservation Act. "Our attorneys have reviewed documentation provided by the state and come to the conclusion that it is not complying with the Land and Water Act," said Jeff Schmidt, executive director of the Sierra Club's Pennsylvania chapter.

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - Political assassinations in Tokyo. Censorship and the stifling of dissent. A nation hungry for oil and other natural resources. Kimono-clad women in department stores and boarding streetcars. A smiling Babe Ruth posing for photos with Japanese teenage baseball players while on tour with other American all-stars. Visitors to Pearl Harbor are seeing these snapshots of 1930s Japan as they stroll through the National Park Service's new museum devoted to the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that dragged the U.S. into World War II. This is a significant departure from the old collection devoted to one of worst foreign attacks ever on American soil - what life was like in Japan at the time didn't much figure into it. The center, which officially opened Dec. 7 and is drawing about 4,000 visitors a day, was built in part because the old one was sinking on reclaimed land.

Experimentation is essential for artists, Josephine L. Winsor once said, so maybe that explains why the 74-year-old painter from Wayne was drunk in a national park after dark with a dead woodpecker in her car. Winsor, whose oil and acrylic paintings focus on real-life settings, was involved in the surreal situation on Dec. 11 inside Valley Forge National Park. According to documents obtained by the Daily News , officers at Valley Forge found Winsor's 2001 Ford Focus inside the park around 11 p.m., after it was closed.

WASHINGTON - President Obama says he is constantly telling his two daughters to turn off the TV, stop using Skype, and go outside. He wants to get more American youngsters off the couch and out the door, reconnecting with the world's natural beauty. And he wants to make it easier for them to use parks and public lands, saying that too many Americans "can go days without stepping on a single blade of grass. " Toward that end, the president wants Congress to double spending - to $900 million next year - on a conservation fund that buys property for the federal government.

As a former park ranger at Valley Forge National Historical Park, I was very saddened to learn of the planned shooting of 1,000 deer over the next four years ("Valley Forge joins call to battle deer," Sunday). When I worked in the park's natural resources division, the official position was that controlling the deer population would not be initiated by the Park Service because neither the deer nor their browsing affected the mission of park, which is to tell the story of the Continental Army at Valley Forge.

When Mark Lorenzini told his ex-brother-in-law he was going fishing below the Burlington Bristol Bridge, the response was: "What are you going to catch, a body?" In fact, 40-inch striped bass can be caught in the much-improved waters of the Delaware River. And misguided stories like this frustrate Patrick Starr, who sees the river as an overlooked gem - cultural, historical, and recreational - that is badly in need of a sponsor. His vision: a Tidal Delaware River National Recreation Area, 72 river miles from Trenton to Delaware City, managed by the National Park Service.