Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 3, 1990 TAG: 9005030531
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If the foundation's public-sector creditors - state and federal tax-collection agencies - have been less magnanimous, requiring penalties and interest for late payment of payroll-withholding taxes, the amount of the penalties and interest was small.
And if the foundation's fund-raisers are being paid while others wait, it underscores a fact that's no secret. The main task now for the Explore Project, of which the foundation is the fund-raising arm, is to raise the private money necessary to get the project (literally) off the ground.
All that said, the above financial information - reported the other day by this newspaper - still adds up to a public-relations gaffe.
It's regrettable, because the focus now should be on securing dollars to start turning the undeveloped Explore Park into a living-history museum.
Interest and penalties imposed in 1989 for late payment of payroll-withholding taxes amounted to only about $1,000. But of the disclosures about the foundation's finances, it is the most serious. The creditors were public, not private, and are ones that demand prompt payment.
The other disclosures involve private money paid or owed private firms.
Money currently is owed a Seattle zoo-design firm and to a Roanoke engineering firm. Both, however, have been paid for the bulk of their work for the foundation.
Money also is owed Ren Heard of Renovation Specialists. Because of his support of Explore, Heard says, he's willing to be patient.
Monthly payments of approximately $30,000 to Clearbrook - the consulting firm, owned by project manager Bern Ewert and project engineer Richard Burrow, hired to run the show - are up to date. So are payments of approximately $9,200 monthly to Mike Gleason, a history adviser and the foundation's Washington, D.C., fund-raiser.
None of this was news to the foundation's board, headed by retired Roanoke College President Norman Fintel. Apart from the withholding-tax situation, which apparently has been straightened out, it all seems explicable.
If explanation is needed, it is to present and future donors that it should principally be addressed. Moreover, the foundation apparently has complied with the reporting rules for private non-profit entities.
Still, the foundation supports a project that's in partnership with governmental agencies. It might well be served by a more open attitude about its internal finances.
Opposition to the Explore Project may be a minority viewpoint (polls suggest it is), but the critics' potshots are loud and persistent. There's no point in handing the critics extra ammunition.
by CNB