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

DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993                   TAG: 9304240205
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MUSEUM GIVEN FUND CHALLENGE

Roanoke hopes to provide $1 million for the Virginia Museum of Transportation in a bond issue for city projects within the next year, Mayor David Bowers says.

Bowers challenged the museum's board of directors Friday to match the city's contribution with $1 million in private donations to help expand the museum's scope.

He urged the board to make the museum a major attraction that can be linked with the Hotel Roanoke, City Market, Henry Street Revival area and other facilities that draw tourists into downtown.

Bowers has suggested that the tourist attractions could be linked by a linear park system along the Norfolk Southern Corp. tracks or possibly by a streetcar system.

He has invited representatives from 20 businesses, agencies and other groups to a summit on Wednesday to get their ideas on how the downtown attractions can be linked and packaged.

Bowers described his meeting with the museum's board as a prelude to Wednesday's summit. He urged the board to think big and not to be satisfied with a second-rate museum.

The museum has been in the old Norfolk & Western Railway freight station on Norfolk Avenue since it was flooded out of Wasena Park in 1985.

Initially, Bowers said, he thought that moving the museum to the freight station was a mistake. But he now believes it was a good move because it can be part of the downtown tourism plan.

The $42 million Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center project will be the centerpiece for the plan, Bowers said, but the museum is an integral attraction.

A pedestrian bridge is to be built over the railroad tracks to link the hotel with the City Market.

Bowers suggested that the museum might want to expand its scope and place some exhibits in the proposed linear park.

He also urged the museum to seek funds from other localities to help finance its operations. He suggested that the museum's supporters could benefit from the can-do attitude that enabled the Renew Roanoke campaign to raise $5 million in private donations for the hotel project.

"That is the same theme today. Now is the time for the museum to move forward," he said.

by CNB