State Rep. Stephen Barrar said he’s upset with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for not contacting him about the possibility of PHMC relinquishing responsibility for the Brandywine Battlefield Park in Chadds Ford.

It was reported in March that a state study suggests PHMC stop administering the park and turn it over to the township. PHMC is scheduled to vote on the recommendation in June. Several other historic facilities are also in jeopardy because of $1.8 million in proposed state budget cuts.

Barrar, R-160, of Boothwyn said he learned about the situation after reading about it in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I was very angry with the commission for not notifying the representatives of the districts where they’re [planning] to shut down a battlefield. … I was really furious,” Barrar said during a town hall meeting he held in Chadds Ford April 2.

Not only are Chadds Ford and the park within the 160th legislative district, but Barrar is the Republican chairman of the Tourism and Recreational Development Commission.

He said that his Democratic Party counterpart, state Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, D-159 of Chester was also left out of the loop.

Tourism is one of the three largest industries in the commonwealth along with agriculture and manufacturing.

Barrar said he and Kirkland have “a vested interest in what happens,” and that they would do everything to try to reinstate the money to keep Brandywine Battlefield Park and others from closing.

“If tourism is your biggest industry in the commonwealth, the biggest money maker, why would you shut down tourist attractions? You wonder, has lunacy taken over state government,” Barrar said.

He added, though, that he thinks it’s a game played by all governors, even Republican Gov. Tom Ridge when he was in office.

Barrar explained that all governors negotiate back and forth with the legislature at budget time.

“The game that the governor plays with the budget is that he will zero out a line item in the budget that he knows the legislators will fight to get back in. And then his argument will be that if we go back and say we want the $1.8 million reinstated for the battlefield and other attractions, then the governor will say ‘I’ll agree to put the money back in for the legislator, but I’ll need to get another $1.8 million someplace else,’” Barrar said.

He repeated that all governors do the same thing, including Gov. Ridge but that, “The only difference was that when Gov. Ridge was here we were having $900 million surpluses, not deficits that we’re having today.

Barrar said the goal would be to keep the park a state facility, and that one of the advantages is that the park is in the district of the second most powerful state senator, Dominic Pileggi, R-9, of Chester.

Prior to the meeting Barrar said, “Sen. Pileggi and I are not going to let the park close.”

According to Leslie Lobb Fredericks of Pileggi’s staff, the senator would not be making any public comment on the situation until after a May 7 public hearing.

That hearing, she said, will be held at Turners’ Mill, Chadds Ford’s township building on Ring Road at Route 1, right across the street from the battlefield park. The hearing scheduled to run from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. May7 is a Thursday.