Truman sites stay closed because of 2013 budget cuts

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Sites related to former president Harry Truman apparently will remain closed for the foreseeable future because federal budget cuts enacted last year remain in place, the sites' director said.

The Truman Home in Independence, where Harry and Bess Truman lived for most of their married lives, is open Tuesday through Saturday, but not seven days a week like it used to be. The Truman Farm Home in Grandview and a home across from the Truman Home were closed last March after mandated federal budget reductions, The Independence Examiner reported.

"Certainly there was no indication from our regional director" that services trimmed last spring are coming back, said Larry Villalva, superintendent of the Harry S Truman National Historic Site.

His office is still trying to determine the impact of a deal approved last month by Congress that prevented further budget cuts, but did not reverse cuts enacted last March. Those federally required reductions cost the Truman sites $64,000 a year.

The Truman Home, which draws about 32,000 visitors a year, was given to the National Park Service when Bess Truman died in 1982 and opened to the public in 1984. The Truman Farm Home in Grandview was where Truman lived before he served in World War I. The National Park Service opened the Noland Home across from the Truman Home as a visitor station in 2012, but it was used in that capacity for less than a year.

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Information from: The Examiner, http://www.examiner.net