Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 13, 1993 TAG: 9301130225
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
EXPLORE'S LEADERSHIP SEEKS AID
Explore Park leaders sounded the alarm about the project's finances Tuesday.They warned that private donors cannot be expected to keep paying all of the expenses and governments must chip in if the park is ever going to become a major tourist attraction.
Explore leaders said the living-history state park is in no danger of going under. On the contrary, contributions are up 50 percent in the past year, despite a sluggish economy that has crimped fund-raising for many non-profit groups.
But virtually all of the living-history park's $500,000-a-year budget, Explore leaders say, is eaten up by the day-to-day operating expenses and the park's growing educational program, leaving little money for construction.
Without an infusion of government funds, said former Roanoke College President Norman Fintel, "it'll just limp along."
He spoke of how it's "essential" to make a new push for state funding, although he acknowledged it'll be next year at the earliest before there's any available. For the first time since the project's start in 1985, he and other Explore leaders also talked of asking valley governments to kick in cash, although there's no timetable for making a specific request.
And, in a bid to piggyback on the popularity of another valley project, he linked Explore's fate to that of the Hotel Roanoke, saying Explore could help draw the tourists needed to fill up the city's beloved landmark.
Fintel's comments came at the quarterly meeting of the state board that owns Explore and reflect a long-standing concern among valley leaders about the future of philanthropy in the Roanoke Valley - a concern heightened in recent weeks with the passing of Dominion Bankshares and heiress Marion Via.
They also reflect a subtle transfer of power taking place within the Explore hierarchy.
There are two boards connected with Explore:
The 13-member Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority, appointed by the governor, owns and governs the project, much as a board of visitors sets policy for a state university.
The nine-member River Foundation, a non-profit group of Roanoke Valley business leaders who initially conceived of and bankrolled the project, employs the staff and raises money for the park.
In theory, the foundation works for the authority. But in practice, the River Foundation has been the dominant board and the authority has been little more than a rubber stamp whose biggest decisions of late have involved drilling wells.
After all, it's been the foundation, led by such old-guard businessmen as Roanoke Electric Steel founder John Hancock and Grand Piano Chairman George Cartledge Sr., that has been in charge of fund-raising with its members also contributing generously themselves.
But those two men are now in their 80s, and Fintel, who sits on both boards, said his fellow authority members must take the lead in seeking new funding sources. "We cannot continue to do it this way," he said. "This board has got to get more aggressive."
He noted that Explore's five-person staff contains no professional fund-raiser. Instead, the staff duties for fund raising have fallen to Rupert Cutler, a scientist and environmental leader who is Explore's environmental director, and to project engineer Richard Burrow.
Fintel's remarks were greeted with nods of agreement from many authority members, who agreed to devote their next meeting in April to a soul-searching about their role and the project's future.
In the past year, Explore leaders have taken several steps to improve the project's financial condition:
Cutler has helped reshape the park's plan to focus the project more on environmental education. "I do feel we've addressed and solved the problem we've had for years that we were creating a theme park," Cutler said. That, he said, has made the project more attractive to big national donors, although so far only about $20,000 - to underwrite the park's endangered-species breeding program - has been forthcoming.
The River Foundation has tried to widen its fund-raising network in the Roanoke Valley by creating a 40-member group called the Founders Circle to help raise private contributions.
Glenn O. Thornhill Jr., president of the Maid Bess apparel company in Salem, leads the group.
The Founders Circle, Burrow said, is a big reason why contributions to the River Foundation increased from $481,562 in the fiscal year ending June 1991 to $723,479 in the fiscal year ending June 1992, despite a gloomy national economy. In all, 110 people or business contributed, the most ever.
With the increased donations, Explore was for the first time able to start construction, albeit on a limited scale. So far, a 19th-century farmhouse, a barn and several outbuildings have been erected.
Finally, the authority moved this past summer to set a precedent for spending state funds on Explore's operating expenses.
Until then, the authority had spent its sole appropriation of state funds on buying land. Meanwhile, the River Foundation had paid for Explore's educational program - the nature hikes and frontier re-enactments it offers school groups that regularly tour the park - out of private donations.
But in July, the authority nearly emptied its bank account, reimbursing the foundation $119,000 to cover what had been spent in the previous fiscal year on education and advancing $33,000 to pay for educational programs in the current fiscal year.
The rationale was that the foundation's role should be limited to raising money, but that the state authority should pay for the park's programs. After all, it's a state-owned park. Explore leaders hoped that argument also would give them a better chance at winning state funding to start paying for the park's operating expenses, freeing the River Foundation to spend most of its money for for construction.
In the months since, Cutler and other Explore leaders have courted state officials and have won favorable comments - most recently from state Secretary of Economic Development Cathleen Magennis - about how money might be available in the future.
But the state budget remains tight, and Gov. Douglas Wilder has proposed no funding for Explore in the coming year. Even if the General Assembly found money for Explore next year, it wouldn't be available until July 1994, Fintel pointed out.
As a result, "this will be another year of tough sledding for Explore," Cutler said.
That prompted the discussion of asking valley governments to contribute, although they may not be any more willing to put up money than the state has been. "Right now," said Roanoke City Councilman Howard Musser, "I don't know of any governing body that's in a position to do something extra."