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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991                   TAG: 9103190306
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

W.VA. SENATOR LANDS BIG FISH/ WILDLIFE CENTER PROJECT MAY BLOSSOM INTO TOURIS

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who has boasted of bringing $1 billion dollars in federal projects to his state, has used his position to transform a modest proposal for a wildlife worker training center into what officials say will be a "world-class, state-of-the-art" tourist attraction in West Virginia's easternmost county.

Government officials said Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is the driving force behind the unannounced project that would have the federal government build a multimillion-dollar wildlife center near Harpers Ferry.

An official familiar with the project said it suddenly appeared in a mid-1989 Senate Appropriations report as a one-line, $4.9 million appropriation for a "training center" for the Fish and Wildlife Service and has since grown to something that will cost more than $60 million.

In a similar maneuver, Byrd recently engineered the transfer of the FBI's fingerprint center from downtown Washington to West Virginia. In both cases he used his position on the Appropriations Committee to obtain money without having to hold a public hearing on the projects.

With large aquariums and fish and animal habitat displays, the Harpers Ferry center is described in an internal Fish and Wildlife report as having the potential of drawing 1 million tourists annually to the West Virginia town.

The service did not request the project, but a knowledgeable official said Fish and Wildlife quickly embraced it after Byrd secured planning funds for the project almost two years ago. Until then, "the idea of having a training center never had strong management support," the official said.

In an internal report last year by the Interior Department agency, officials spoke glowingly of the center, calling it "a critical and complementary link" to the National Zoo in Washington and the National Aquarium in Baltimore. The center will give the wildlife service a "desperately needed" central location to train the agency's 7,000 personnel, the official said.

The service examined three models for the center, costing from $25.2 million to $59.5 million. It chose the most expensive version, but the official said the final price is certain to be more after all of the equipment is added.

Asked to comment on the project, Byrd's office produced a three-paragraph statement Monday on the Appropriations Committee letterhead, saying that the Fish and Wildlife Service established a "short list of priorities" last year that called for improved training facilities. The statement did not mention tourist aspects of the center.

The center will be state-of-the-art, the internal report said, including an indoor pool and gym, in addition to a tourist "habitat center."

by CNB