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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 30, 1993                   TAG: 9304300420
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

$250,000

EXPLORE Park is at last getting what it has sought for years - significant private financial support from outside the Roanoke Valley.

For the $250,000 grant from the Beirne Carter Foundation, to reassemble and outfit the huge Houts Barn, nearly two centuries old, credit is due many people. For now, let's mention Explore leader Rupert Cutler and the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.

Cutler, a man with national conservationist credentials, has not only toiled hard to get Explore's foot in the office doors of potential donors. He also has worked to revise the project to make it more interesting to prospective donors, yet without abandoning the grand vision of an economy-boosting destination attraction for tourism.

The barn will be an entrance pavilion and interim education center, eventually a performing-arts center.

The supervisors' contribution was their reaffirmation Tuesday of an earlier agreement to match $350,000 in state money to improve Rutrough Road. The road will provide temporary access to Explore from the Blue Ridge Parkway, until a federal parkway spur is to be completed in 1996.

With Ed Kohinke's abstention, Harry Nickens and Bob Johnson needed a vote switch by Lee Eddy. He gave it, on the grounds that the county shouldn't back out on a commitment already made. Today, he, Nickens and Johnson are looking smarter for their votes.

by CNB