Bill to let woman stay in national park stalls

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 7, 2005 at midnight

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WASHINGTON - For the second time in a month, a procedural squabble in Congress on Tuesday stalled legislation to let octogenarian Betty Dick continue living at her seasonal home in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Earlier this year, the National Park Service threatened to enforce a 25-year lease agreement and evict Dick from the land where she and her late husband had lived part- time since the 1970s.

In 1979, they negotiated an agreement that they thought would allow them to stay on the land for the rest of their lives.

But, Betty Dick told a congressional committee, a last-minute change converted it into a 25-year limit.

Fred Dick died in 1992. Betty Dick said she never worried about the 25- year limit until last year, when she realized she was about to outlive the agreement.

The Senate and House of Representatives passed different versions of legislation to let her remain on the land for the rest of her life.

The original author, Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., set aside his House- passed version and the House was scheduled to take final action Tuesday on a Senate-passed version by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

Instead, Republican leaders told Udall that there was an objection against the bill on procedural grounds, and the item was pulled from the agenda, said Udall spokesman Lawrence Pacheco.

If the House does not take action before Congress adjourns for recess at the end of next week, then it would likely stay on the shelf until at least the end of January.

The House was close to giving final approval by unanimous consent last month, but it was shelved after a shouting match over the Iraq war.

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