ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 10, 1990                   TAG: 9003122956
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FOUNDATION LACKS NEEDED EXPERTISE

FOR MONTHS I have been reading of the Explore Project's successes and failures in raising money and churning the political backwaters. However, not until the Feb. 9 article in your paper outlining the position of the National Parks and Conservation Association did the debate over this project get beyond economics and into the real substance of the issue.

It's one thing to have national figures - big names - on your roster of advisers; it's another actually to solicit professional advice that guides and governs your day to day operation. Whether it's in designing a historically accurate town plan (which Explore has not), or in implementing an acceptable methodology for acquiring actual historic structures, the question must be asked: Does the River Foundation have the expertise on staff to do either?

The final paragraph of a Feb. 21 article, "Private donors give Explore $1 million," in which Ewert equates the Explore Project with the Smithsonian Institution, was more than I could stand. Having worked with a number of Smithsonian staff members in my own research, I can assure you that the implied comparison is an insult to professionalism.

Again, the question is not money, but expertise. It's about time the debate over this issue got beyond all the political hype.\ EVAN LLOYD ROANOKE 


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