By AUDRA CLARK, Valley Breeze Staff Writer
CUMBERLAND - A real national park could be in Rhode Island's future.
Representatives of the National Park Service held meetings in Cumberland and North Smithfield on July 7 to present their study on the Blackstone River Valley's potential to become the first national park in Rhode Island.
The funding for the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission, which was established by Congress in 1986, will expire in October 2011. In anticipation of this, Congress asked the park service to assess the area in terms of its role in the Industrial Revolution and determine if it meets the requirements for becoming a unit of the National Park Service.
Currently, there are three units of the National Park Service in Rhode Island - Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, the Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence and the Touro Synagogue National Historic Site in Newport. But these are not national parks.
Presenting the study's preliminary findings was the project manager Ellen Carlson of the park service's Northeast Regional Office and Bob McIntosh, the assistant regional director.