Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 6, 1990 TAG: 9007060290
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This week, he sent a letter to local elected officials in the Roanoke Valley warning that Explore is prompting a "fiscal policy crisis" and asking them to let him know whether the proposed $185 million living-history state park is one of their priorities.
The Roanoke Democrat, who has long been Explore's most vocal critic, said he wants to open a new round of public debate on Explore.
Although Explore received no funding in the current state budget and won't be asking for money again until 1992, Macfarlane said he was prompted to send his letter now for several reasons.
One is that the state is facing a budget crunch and Macfarlane warns that the General Assembly won't have much money to spend over the next few years. Also, the cost estimate released last week for the proposed Roanoke River Parkway - which could cost the state $15 million that otherwise would be spent on other roads in Western Virginia - has refocused attention on the project, Macfarlane said.
Macfarlane said he was concerned by the "constant drumbeat" for state funding for Explore and its accompanying river parkway.
"In my judgment, this enormously expensive project, if it is to continue, will soak up all of the available state cash for other major valleywide projects for years to come," Macfarlane wrote.
He then listed 14 such projects - most notably the proposed shortcut from Interstate 81 to Blacksburg, the proposed trade center in downtown Roanoke, "funding assistance" to Virginia Tech to renovate the Hotel Roanoke, and the renovation of the old Jefferson High School into an arts center.
Also on Macfarlane's list of allegedly endangered projects are updating sewer systems, expanding water supplies, acquiring land for several valley industrial parks, flood control projects, expansion of private aviation facilities at the Roanoke airport, expansion of Virginia Western Community College and general funding for other cultural organizations in the valley.
"I do not believe we can reasonably expect allocation of state monies for both Explore . . . and for these 14 projects," Macfarlane wrote.
But other elected officials in the valley disagreed.
Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, took strong issue with Macfarlane's warning. He said Virginia Western Community College, for instance, has received "around $10 million in state aid" during the past five years, while Explore was also gaining state backing. Valley industrial parks and cultural programs such as Roanoke's Center in the Square have also received boosted state backing during that period, he said.
"We will become the prisoners of our own myopic thinking and inferiority complex if we allow ourselves to believe that we can ask the state for only one thing at a time," Cranwell said. "It appears that Granger hasn't kept abreast of the things we have been doing for the area in the budget."
Cranwell said several of the projects that Macfarlane said could be damaged by Explore do not historically depend on state financing anyway. Water, sewer and landfill money generally comes from the federal government, he said. And Virginia has never helped a locality build a convention center, Cranwell said.
Vinton Mayor Charles Hill, whose town has been a strong supporter of Explore, also disagreed with Macfarlane. He said that different projects have different funding sources in the state budget, so that, for example, proposed expansion of Virginia Western may compete against other higher education projects but not against Explore.
Because they had not received the letter, most other valley legislators and local officials declined comment on the letter, which Macfarlane hand-delivered to the Roanoke Times & World-News but mailed to everyone else.
The newspaper provided a copy of Macfarlane's letter to Explore, but Explore officials did not return a reporter's phone call.
In his letter, Macfarlane also contends that Explore already has cost the Roanoke Valley a chance to land the Virginia Horse Center.
A legislative study group recommended in June 1984 - just when plans for a zoo expansion that later led to Explore were first being discussed - that the horse center be built outside Lexington. But the Roanoke Valley continued to push for a site near Hollins College up until the General Assembly confirmed the Lexington location in early 1985.
Macfarlane said some members of the Virginia House and Senate money committees met informally at the Governor's Day football game at Virginia Tech in November 1984 with what Macfarlane described only as "proponents of the zoo project."
Macfarlane said the late Ed Willey, then the Senate Finance chairman, told the Roanoke proponents "they had to make up their minds: Did they want the horse center or the zoo, and they opted for the zoo."
As a result, Macfarlane said, Rockbridge County is now receiving the tax revenues from the horse center, while the Roanoke Valley has nothing to show for Explore except the land that's been purchased along the Bedford-Roanoke County line.
Macfarlane refused to say who was at the 1984 meeting, so it was impossible to confirm his account.
However, Cranwell, then a senior member and now chairman of the House Finance Committee, said: "If there was that kind of meeting, I never heard anything about it."
The question of whether Explore will compete for funding with other valley projects is one that has been mentioned before, although never this directly. Last week, a high-ranking congressional aide warned that the Roanoke River Parkway - which would provide the only public access to Explore - is competing for federal funds with the proposed direct link to Blacksburg.
Staff writer Rob Eure contributed information for this story.
by CNB