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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 16, 1991                   TAG: 9103160346
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LYNN A. COYLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCIENCE MUSEUM ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS

The Science Museum of Western Virginia notified two staff members that they will be laid off as the museum announced plans Friday to restructure and reduce its staff in response to its expected loss of state funds.

Executive Director Chris Pendleton met with the rest of the staff Friday to outline the restructuring plan, which was put together by the staff and board of trustees.

The plan was presented to the board in an executive session Thursday afternoon.

Pendleton and Thomas J. Crawford, president of the board of trustees, both declined to name the staff members affected.

For the fiscal year beginning July 1, the museum expects to lose its entire appropriation of $262,500. That is about a quarter of the museum's operating budget.

"We haven't really been advised that we're not going to get funding yet, although we're basing all our assumptions on that," Crawford said in an interview Friday.

That assumption, according to Pendleton, is based on Gov. Douglas Wilder's announcement last fall that there would be no appropriations for non-state agencies in the upcoming budget year.

The appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30 was reduced last fall by 25 percent - from $262,500 to $196,875.

"Further changes are going to be necessary other than the two layoffs today," Crawford said Friday. "There are four other positions that will be affected either through reduced hours or reassignment of duties. The changes will be staggered as far as the effective dates."

He and Pendleton declined to give further details. But both gave assurances that the public would not notice a change in services this school year.

"We don't want to give them the impression that we can weather the storm without any problems, because that's certainly not the case," he explained. "What we're doing now is primarily to get us through the school year."

"Next year without any state funding, we're facing even more severe cutbacks. This isn't the end," Crawford predicted.

The board did hear some heartening news during the open portion of Thursday's meeting. The General Assembly passed a bill that will allow the museum to maintain its tax-exempt status, softening the impact of the funding loss. Previously, the museum had to receive at least 10 percent of its funding from the state to be exempt.

And the dinosaur exhibit, which runs through the end of this month, has increased visitation to an all-time high of 27,166 in February. And through its outreach program, museum staff visited 3,932 school children in 30 districts in February, another all-time high.

"We're still here. We're still open. And it's still maybe the best two weeks of the year to come and see us," Pendleton said.

by CNB