QUESTION IS: TO EXPLORE OR NOT TO EXPLORE?

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

DATE: MONDAY, January 25, 1993                   TAG: 9301250034
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
QUESTION IS: TO EXPLORE OR NOT TO EXPLORE?
Roanoke County is poised to make its first major financial commitment to Explore.
The Board of Supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to spend $350,000 to help the living-history state park meet its goal of opening to the public in 1994.
The money would go toward widening and straightening a section of Rutrough Road, which will serve as a temporary route to Explore until a Blue Ridge Parkway spur is completed in 1996.
If approved, the Rutrough Road appropriation would be a watershed in the Board of Supervisors' support for Explore, which is considered the county's No. 1 tourism and economic development opportunity.
There is talk of providing Explore with an ongoing subsidy from a share of an anticipated increase in county hotel room tax. And Explore needs to raise an estimated $14 million to complete all the scheduled work for its 1994 public opening.
"They have a lot of needs," County Administrator Elmer Hodge said.
The most immediate need is access from the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Explore planners are counting on the parkway to provide the bulk of visitors. But a proposed 1.5-mile parkway spur that would lead into Explore - located along the Roanoke River in eastern Roanoke County - is not scheduled for completion until 1996.
As a stopgap, the National Park Service has approved a temporary parkway exit onto Rutrough Road. The exit - estimated to cost $100,000 - will be paid for with money already approved for the parkway spur, according to Richard Burrow, project engineer for Explore.
The National Park Service approved the temporary exit on condition that the state make improvements to a 2-mile stretch of Rutrough Road, which is too narrow and twisting to handle an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 cars per year.
The county will share the cost of the $700,000 project with the State Department of Transportation.
The temporary access road violates an earlier understanding with neighbors that Explore would not divert traffic onto Rutrough Road.
County Supervisor Harry Nickens, whose Vinton District includes Explore, said that most Rutrough Road residents have accepted the temporary access agreement.
Once the parkway spur is completed, traffic levels will drop and residents will get the benefit of an improved road, Nickens said.
C.V. Bollinger, a Rutrough Road resident and vocal Explore critic, said he would make no comment on the road plan until he heard details at the supervisors' meeting Tuesday.
"The last thing I heard was that . . . there was no funds for this thing," Bollinger said.
The county is preparing to make its first major commitment to Explore even though no one knows what the 1,600-acre living-history park will contain if it opens next year.
Plans for a $15 million first phase include an environmental education center, Blue Ridge living history farm, a tavern and bed-and-breakfast inn, a Native American exhibit, 5-acre aviary and wilderness training lodge.
So far, however, Explore backers have raised only $2 million.
"We have a long way to go," said Rupert Cutler, director of the River Foundation, the non-profit group running Explore for the state.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB