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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 8, 1993                   TAG: 9305080136
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LEIGH ALLEN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MUSEUM HAS PLANS FOR $1 MILLION

City officials who hope to gather $1 million in city tax money to expand the Virginia Museum of Transportation will announce their plans for that project Monday.

Roanoke City Mayor David Bowers hopes to expand the museum into one of the nation's largest railroad history exhibits. If Bowers has his way, the museum would be connected to the City Market and other downtown locations with a mini-streetcar system.

Bowers has challenged the museum to raise another $1 million in private contributions to match what he hopes the city will give to the project.

In 1992, the city contributed $75,000 to the museum, which has a staff of four people and attracts about 70,000 visitors each year.

Kay Houck, the museum's executive director, said she would use some of the $1 million the museum hopes to get from the city to cover its collection of railcars and locomotives. They are deteriorating because they are exposed to the weather, she said.

The $1 million for the museum would come from a city bond issue designed to raise money to develop downtown Roanoke, Bowers has said. That bond issue still must be approved by city voters.

Downtown Roanoke Incorporated officials, museum Board of Directors President Roy Bucher and Bowers will announce the plans at 10:30 a.m. Monday in the museum's rail yard at 303 Norfolk Ave., S.W.

by CNB