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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991                   TAG: 9103190468
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: BILL MCALLISTER THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BYRD BRINGS HOME THE BACON WITH W.VA. WILDLIFE CENTER

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who has boasted of bringing a 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 tourist-oriented 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 funding without having to hold a public hearing on the projects.

With large salt- and freshwater aquariums and a score of outdoor fish and animal habitat displays, the Harpers Ferry center is described in an internal Fish and Wildlife report as having the potential of drawing a million visitors a year to the West Virginia town on the western fringe of the Washington metropolitan area.

Although the service did not request the project, a knowledgeable official said Fish and Wildlife quickly embraced it after Byrd secured the initial 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. "There are just too many things pressing" that had a higher priority, the official said.

The service examined three models for the center, ranging in cost from $25.2 million to $59.5 million. It opted for the most expensive version, but the official said the final price is certain to be more than $60 million because the estimate does not include the full cost of equipping the center.

The project is one of two major federal projects that Byrd is championing for the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The other project, previously disclosed, involves the possible relocation of scattered small CIA offices from the metropolitan area to a site either in Northern Virginia or Jefferson County, W.Va.

Byrd's role in obtaining funding for the CIA site study was not known when the study became public earlier this month.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Monday that relocation would involve consolidating 18 relatively small CIA offices to a new site.

Warner said four sites in Northern Virginia are under consideration along with one in Jefferson County, W.Va. He said he believed the CIA study "is proceeding in a fair and objective manner."

by CNB