In the Feb. 17 board meeting, the Parks Board discussed extending the close dates of any park where there is currently a drafted agreement between cities and state, or cancelling the closure of any park where cities have volunteered to take over operational management.

The board only voted to give one park a brief reprieve, though several others are in the process of drafting agreements with the state.

Riordan Mansion State Historic Park in Flagstaff, which was set to close on Feb. 22, will stay open until March 29. People fighting for other parks, like Fort Verde State Historic Park, Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park and Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park are hoping to have drafted agreements in place before the next Parks Board meeting in March.

Don Taylor, president of the Tombstone Chamber of Commerce and a participant in the fight to keep the Courthouse open, said Tombstone preemptively planned to save the Courthouse when the rumors first began to circulate that it was on the chopping block.

Taylor said as soon as the announcement was made that the Courthouse was going to be closed on March 29, he immediately contacted the mayor and both contacted Arizona State Parks.

It was that quick action that may have made the difference for Tombstone and its efforts to save the Courthouse, Taylor said. Taylor points out that many other cities in Arizona are unable to do anything to stop the closure of their local parks.

The threat of park closures has been on everyone's mind since the State Legislature swept $8.6 million from State Parks funds. Without this money, the Parks Board announced that it would begin a series of closures of all but nine state parks.

According to Ellen Bilbrey, State Parks public information officer, the board was forced to close parks based on their profitability and not their historical relevance.

The Tombstone mayor and council are hopeful that progress toward a deal with State Parks will continue.

"We've already met with [the State Parks Board] and we're in the process of waiting for the state to prepare an intergovernmental agreement," said Mayor Dusty Escapule.

Escapule said the finalization of the intergovernmental agreement could take four-to-six weeks, but said he's confident that the Courthouse won't be closing its doors anytime soon.

Taylor said Tombstone modeled its proposed intergovernmental agreement after Yuma's current agreement with the Quartermaster's Depot State Historic Park. Once Tombstone's agreement is approved by the Parks Board, Taylor said the Chamber of Commerce will step in to take control of the Courthouse.

"We were able to come up with some ideas – a few variations from [Yuma's] agreement," Taylor said. "Our plan is that, after the agreement is signed by the city with the state, the Chamber of Commerce will sign a service agreement with the city to operate the park as we do Boothill."

City Attorney Randall Bays cited the Chamber's success at Boothill as reason to be certain that the agreement will succeed.

"The Tombstone Chamber of Commerce has done a very exemplary job at making money for the city," said Bays, "which is then turned around and put into advertising to bring additional people to the city of Tombstone. That's one of the reasons that Tombstone is one of the only cities in Arizona that's operating in the black."