Despite pleas that its canal boating operation is hardly worthy of a terrorist screening, Easton's Hugh Moore Park has been told its mule guides must get special fingerprint-coded identification cards before the April 15 deadline.

The federal government's directive essentially ends the organization's bid to avoid paying about $400 for four Transportation Worker Identification Credentials.

Under a new rule, all Coast Guard-certified boat operators must get the high-tech government IDs. But U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-15th District, says he's continuing to press for an exemption.

Sarah Hays, Hugh Moore's operations director, had argued that the fee would be a drain on the nonprofit's bottom line and that guides on a Lehigh Canal boat that carries school groups and families shouldn't be subject to the same rules as longshoremen and truck drivers in the nation's ports.

The credentials, valid for five years, would cost about $100 for each of the canal boat ride's four Coast Guard-certified operators and add to the $300-per-person fee the museum pays every five years to renew the operators' Coast Guard licenses.