PAGE, Arizona — Here where Lake Powell straddles the Utah and Arizona line, Kari Handley walks Wahweap Marina and sees things she doesn’t like.
Handley squints in the bright sun. It reflects off the water and the red rock canyons that draw her family and so many others here.
Then she points down to the docks where houseboats — some worth more than real houses — are tied.
Screws are popped out of the dock’s decking, lifting planks and plywood sheets and creating trip hazards. In one boat slip, wood constructing the slip’s frame is rotting.
One boat is connected to a water valve that is leaking. And Handley says the maintenance problems aren’t confined to what you can see on the dock.
“We started having to bring our own toilet paper,” Handley said, “because if you have to go to the restroom, chances are you’re not going to have any toilet paper.”
Wahweap Marina — including its docks, boat rentals, gas station, restaurants, lodging and all the restrooms that come with them — is operated by Philadelphia-based Aramark. The company also operates Bullfrog Marina, on the north end of Lake Powell, and most of the services there.
Boaters like Handley think Aramark needs to better manage its marinas, and that the National Park Service needs to better manage Aramark.
The Park Service hasn’t put the Wahweap and Bullfrog contracts out for bid since the Beatles were still together. Aramark is receiving millions of dollars a year in revenue, records show, from families like Handley’s and other visitors to Lake Powell.
“And once we became a houseboat owner here on the dock,” Handley said, “I started noticing a decline in services.”
Under contract
Handley isn’t the only one who has complained about Aramark.
“Aramark has not done any maintenance or upkeep on either the campground or RV park,” reads a July 2023 email written by a Park Service employee and obtained by FOX 13.
“My wife and I have… cleaned their restrooms more than they have this season,” the employee went on to write. “We have received more complaints than I can count.”
Aramark Destinations, the division of the company operating the Lake Powell contracts, sent FOX 13 a statement, reading in part:
“We work closely under contract with the National Park Service to ensure the best experiences for guests during every visit ….
“All feedback is promptly reviewed and addressed to ensure visitor satisfaction….
“Our commitment to high standards ensures a memorable experience for all, and we are excited to welcome visitors during the heavy summer travel season.”
Aramark has contracts across the country, providing food and management services to all levels of government as well as private venues. Boaters, concerned about management of Lake Powell, obtained contracts, ledgers and other records related to the lake and Aramark, and then shared them with FOX 13 News, which verified them.
The records show Aramark received gross revenues of $684 million from its Lake Powell contracts from fiscal years 2014 through 2023 — money paid by the recreating public.
Also, since 2018, the Park Service has paid Aramark about $100 million more as compensation for what the company has built at Lake Powell. That includes everything from docks to parking lots to employee dorms.
Extensions
The company received that money without ever having to compete for the Lake Powell contracts. The Park Service has not issued a bid for the Wahweap and Bullfrog Marina contracts since 1969, according to public records. That year, Lake Powell received one-sixth of the visitors it does now.
Aramark took over at Wahweap and Bullfrog in 1989 after purchasing the company that held the contracts. Rather than issuing bids, the Park Service has been extending the contracts annually.
“It's a form of no-bid contract,” said Charles Tiefer, a professor emeritus at University of Baltimore School of Law who has authored books on government contracting.
“It doesn't matter whether you're talking about the national parks or building aircraft carriers,” Tiefer added, “the public is the loser when there's no competition.”
Tiefer, who reviewed the contracts and extensions at the request of FOX 13 News, said Aramark has no incentive to improve its performance when it knows it’s going to be retained every year.
“Since they're not afraid of losing the contract,” Tiefer said of Aramark, “their incentive is to maximize their profits.”
Lake Powell sits in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Michelle Kerns, the superintendent for the Park Service at Glen Canyon, said new requests for bids are in the works, though she did not specify when they might be issued.
The contracts for Wahweap and Bullfrog are complex, she said, because of the array of services included.
“We have capacity issues, quite frankly, in our Washington office,” Kerns said in an interview with FOX 13, “to get to all of these contracts that need to be renewed annually.”
Tiefer rejected that, pointing out how much time has passed without bidding.
“Especially with software now,” he said, “you can create the necessary competition materials without working that hard.”
Busy, costly water
Glen Canyon received 4.7 million visitors in 2024. Most of those visited the lake.
Kerns and Glen Canyon administration have largely defended Aramark. When asked about issues like restaurants not being open and public toilets being dirty, they point out Aramark, like many employers in the remote parts of the West, has trouble finding workers.
That’s not much of an excuse for Handley, given what her family pays to keep a houseboat at Lake Powell.
It’s $1,100 a month for a slip fee. There’s an annual payment of $464.
You have to have a national park pass to get in and out of the marina or pay fees every time. And then there’s boat registration fees with the state, too.
“It just feels like we’re not getting any of the things we ask for in return,” Handley said, referring to the maintenance and staffing issues.
Handley said she recently tried for days to call Aramark employees at Wahweap Marina to update her credit card information. No one answered the phone.
Handley worries the bid delay is creating another problem with Aramark.
“They have no motivation, so to speak, to put in any infrastructure,” Handley said, “because they could be replaced.”
Tiefer says that concern is valid. Most government contracts for services, he said, last five years “so that the contractor will put in and will invest in the project.”
Kerns said Aramark is still investing at Lake Powell. She points to improvements at boat ramps impacted by lowering water levels on the lake. And, Kerns said, Aramark is in the midst of upgrading electricity generation at Bullfrog.
Handley believes accountability is the key.
“NPS needs to hold Aramark more accountable,” she said. “And not just to slip holders or houseboat owners but to the general taxpaying public.”
Full statement from Aramark Destinations:
We work closely under contract with the National Park Service to ensure the best experiences for guests during every visit to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where we’ve provided hospitality and recreational services for nearly 40 years. We encourage guests to share feedback through various channels, including in-person at our marina offices, via our website, or through customer service hotlines. All feedback is promptly reviewed and addressed to ensure visitor satisfaction and continuous improvement of our services. Our commitment to high standards ensures a memorable experience for all, and we are excited to welcome visitors during the heavy summer travel season.