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

DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993                   TAG: 9304260345
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXPLORE TO COUNTY: ET TU?

In classic Roanoke Valley fashion, for example, Roanoke city hasn't lifted a finger to help Explore because it's, well, out there in the county, never mind that it holds out the promise of areawide benefits.

This week, even county support for Explore appeared in jeopardy. Supervisors Harry Nickens and Bob Johnson, admirably grasping Explore's potential, have worked to make it happen. But the other three members are questioning, in particular, a $350,000 county appropriation to match state money to improve Rutrough Road.

This road is to be the park's only access until a federal Blue Ridge Parkway spur is finished in 1996, after which it is to be a secondary access. Without it, the park cannot open for general use next year. So, without a majority of county supervisors renouncing the valley's traditional myopia, the park is in trouble.

In a sense, the taxpayers have yet to spend a dime on Explore. Financial expenditures have been made, to be sure, but only in exchange for ownership of capital assets, mainly land. (If nothing else, acquisition of the Explore acreage has given a modest boost to the commonwealth's pitifully meager inventory of state parklands.)

The Rutrough Road improvements would not depart from the cash-for-assets precedent. The county would gain state matching funds to realign a curvy road that needs it, Explore or no. At issue is cooperation with, not a contribution to, Explore - a matter of planning and timing a project that ultimately must be done anyway.

The county is also being asked to contribute, along with the state, a modest amount for operating costs next year. This is not because the private-money stalwarts, who heretofore have been paying for park planning and operations, are retreating from the project. On the contrary, they wish to direct their gifts toward capital development within the park.

That development is proceeding much more slowly, and is now more strongly emphasizing educational and environmental roles, than earlier plans foresaw. Explore was never designed as the tacky "theme park" that some critics had fixed in their heads. Nor do current plans call for only a couple of log cabins that might attract, oh, a half-dozen or so visitors a day.

But Explore's scaling back has scaled back expectations that revenues would, sooner rather than later, underwrite operating costs. So some public funding is appropriate. The prospect of state operating aid, not to mention major private donations for park development, would surely be darkened if the jurisdiction in which the project is located decided to desert it.

It's odd, really. For years, critics beefed that Explore was too ambitious. Now the complaint is it's not ambitious enough. Yet, with the county an active player, county supervisors could help decide how ambitious it should be.

Will a majority muster sufficient boldness and vision at their meeting next week? Or will Explore be a project honored except in its own county?