Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 17, 1990 TAG: 9007170307
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: J. GRANGER MACFARLANE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Thus, the time has come to call attention to a serious matter that has bothered me for several years: the constant drumbeat and ever-increasing demand for more and more state funding for the Explore/zoo project and for its access road, to the exclusion of other necessary and desirable projects. The fiscal impact of this very expensive project on future state funding for other major valleywide projects should be carefully weighed, evaluated and decided upon.
In a nutshell, 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.
For five years, we in this valley have suffered from the fiscal effects of this project; have spent more than $8 million of state tax money on it (plus $3 million held in road-fund reserves); have lost the site for, and the gross business sales and tax revenues from, the Virginia Horse Center; and we have lost, for the commonwealth, the opportunity to buy Natural Bridge along with all of its surrounding acreage and buildings, all because of this project.
Further, because of Explore/zoo's insatiable appetite for more and more state cash, we could lose the opportunities to fully or partially fund with state money, the following projects:
1. The Roanoke to Blacksburg "high tech" roadway.
2. The Roanoke trade/merchandise mart and convention center.
3. Funding assistance for Virginia Tech in its work to refurbish and reopen the Hotel Roanoke.
4. Funding assistance to the highly important and critical metropolitan regional raw water-supply and its companion purification plants.
5. Funding assistance to the equally important expansion and retrofit of our three-level metropolitan sewer system.
6. Funding assistance to help purchase additional tracts of land adjacent to the Roanoke Center for Industry, and in other valley locations, which could have the effect of shutting down our current, hard-won development momentum and its vital benefit of creating more good-pay local jobs.
7. Funding assistance for the newly proposed Vinton Technology and Industrial Park.
8. Funding assistance for a regional landfill and satellite pickup stations.
9. Funding assistance for a proposed garbage/trash incinerator.
10. Funding assistance for regional flood-control projects.
11. Funding assistance for proposed and badly needed expansion of private aviation facilities at the Roanoke Metropolitan Airport.
12. Funding assistance for remodeling of Jefferson High school.
13. Funding assistance to expand Virginia Western Community College. It is possible, I feel, that a second campus for Virginia Western could be located one day in Salem or western Roanoke County.
14. Funding assistance for cultural, arts, theater, music and historical programs and for our various museums.
I feel strongly that under these circumstances, all elected valley government leaders should carefully reconsider and re-evaluate the long-term fiscal impact of the proposed Explore/zoo project and its constant demand for more state money, and hopefully take a position on its future.
In other words, which projects are really important to all of us? In which projects are you [valley leaders] really interested? In what order do you want these projects to proceed? Are you interested in assistance from the commonwealth on these projects?
And finally, as an example of decisions to make, do you approve of and want $17,940,000 or more of state money coming off the top of our highway and airport allocations to help pay for a 9.6-mile, two-lane, retricted-use road?
Absent these solid decisions coming from our common-sense elected leadership, the valley's long-term, high-priority, municipal goals are, in my judgment, slated to receive only local (and possibly some federal) funding. I do not believe we can reasonably expect allocation of state monies for both Explore/zoo and for these 14 projects. State monies over the next few years will be very tight, strictly limited and carefully appropriated.
by CNB