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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 9, 1990                   TAG: 9005090489
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXPLORE COMMITTEE ADDS TWO MEMBERS

Joseph R. Loferski is an assistant professor of wood science at Virginia Tech. His speciality includes why some wood deteriorates faster than other wood - expertise the proposed living-history state park will need as it reconstructs the frontier-era buildings it has acquired.

He visited the park site along the Roanoke County-Bedford County line earlier this year to observe how the buildings are being stored and offer suggestions. He later wrote project director Bern Ewert a letter, saying he was "impressed with your plans and foresight."

Charlene Anne Bailey of Luray is a former training guide for Conner Prairie Pioneer Settlement, an outdoor museum in Indiana, and a former archaeologist technician for the Bureau of Land Management in California.

She holds a bachelor's degree in outdoor recreation and park administration from Indiana University, with an emphasis on farm museums and living-history programs and will complete a master's degree on archaeological resources management at Ball State University this summer.

Earlier this year, some members of Explore's preservation committee and other Roanoke Valley preservationists criticized Explore planners for not being scholarly enough in planning the proposed state park that would re-create Virginia's role in opening the American West.

Some members also complained that the preservation committee's meetings had been suspended so Explore staffers could concentrate on fund-raising.

Tuesday, Explore spokeswoman Joyce Waugh said the committee would resume meetings in late summer or early fall. "It's hard to get people together in the summer and we're right up on it now," she said.