LAKESIDE'S WOODEN ROLLER COASTER REACHES DEAD END

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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993                   TAG: 9302110033
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
LAKESIDE'S WOODEN ROLLER COASTER REACHES DEAD END
Q: When Lakeside Amusement Park closed, the wooden roller coaster was dismantled and put in a pile in an adjacent lot. Shortly afterward, a news story said the coaster was sold to a North Carolina company for reuse as a coaster. Now every time I go by the Lakeside site, pieces of the coaster are still there. Whatever happened to the selling of that coaster, and what will happen to the pieces that are still on that lot? W.O., Christiansburg
A: It's almost like Lakeside scattered to the four winds. Lots of good memories remain, but not much else.
The Shooting Star roller coaster flamed out in the business climate of the late 1980s.
Emerald Point water park in Greensboro, N.C., bought the coaster and five of Lakeside's best rides - including the carousel, tilt-a-whirl and scrambler - in 1987.
The wooden timbers that held an appeal for roller-coaster enthusiasts were numbered and lettered to be reassembled, but as it turned out their days were numbered.
The roller coaster never was erected. The water park got in too deep financially and its lender foreclosed in 1991.
The framework timbers were stacked for a few years on the Emerald Point property. Its current manager said most of the wood was sold in the past year to someone who intended to build a storage barn or bridge.
Terry Henderson, whose company ran Emerald Point when the coaster was purchased, said the roller-coaster cars were held in storage by the company that had intended to rebuild it.
Much of the Shooting Star's metal track is stacked in sections on the undeveloped remainder of the Lakeside property. "We'll gladly donate what's there to Explore," said Joe Yates, Salem's director of planning and economic development.
The bank sold off the other rides, which an Emerald Point spokesman said were in bad shape.
No doubt the soaking they got from Mason Creek during the flood of 1985 had something to do with that.

Presidential checkoff
Q: Could you explain the presidential dollar checkoff on the tax form that's dedicated to the presidential election fund - where it comes from and where it goes? C.M., Roanoke
A: This is a $200 million question.
These $1 checkoffs come from taxpayers willing to help candidates bombard them with commercials and otherwise pursue the electoral process.
About 30 million taxpayers make this choice each year, but their number is declining slowly.
The $1 markers accrue over four years until the next election, and the Federal Election Commission foresees a crisis because there will be maybe $125 million in the fund for the 1996 election. The commission expects $200 million will be needed, and has asked Congress to help.
Last year, $175 million was spent from the fund, most of it in these ways: $27.6 million for various candidates in the primaries; $11 million for each party's convention; and $55.2 million each for George Bush's and Bill Clinton's general-election campaigns.
That does not include money raised in chunks up to $100,000 from political action committees and other sources by the two parties and spent on behalf of the candidates.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB