Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994 TAG: 9401060247
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Two Roanoke Valley legislators, Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, and state Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, have been working in recent weeks to line up support from Martinsville legislators for a merger, which would require the approval of the General Assembly and the governor.
Cranwell says he has simply "brainstormed" with fellow legislators on the idea of putting the two projects under the same administration and has assured his counterparts he has no intention of trying to move the Martinsville museum to Roanoke.
But Bell has gone a step further, notifying fellow legislators and Gov.-elect George Allen that he intends to introduce legislation requiring a state study of a three-way merger among Explore, the Natural History Museum and a Richmond-based division of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources that deals with rare plants and animals.
This week, the museum's executive committee met via telephone conference call to endorse Bell's idea for a merger study.
Furthermore, both Bell and the museum's leaders envision a scenario in which the museum would maintain exhibit space in Martinsville but build its main tourist facility at Explore, the 1,300-acre living-history park under construction just outside Roanoke.
The museum's executive director and the chairman of its board of trustees said Wednesday that the museum needs a bigger facility to showcase its exhibits on Virginia geology and prehistoric life - but it is critical to the museum's long-term financial health that such a facility be built in a bigger city.
Martinsville does not have enough tourist traffic to justify the state's putting up the $16 million for a new building, said Seward Anderson, the Danville stockbroker who is the board's chairman.
The museum draws about 25,000 visitors a year. There is no admission charge. But executive director Connie Gendron said a internal museum study last fall showed that a Roanoke location would draw at least 155,000 visitors a year. With a $5 admission fee, the museum could then generate enough revenue to not only pay off the building's debt of $1.4 million per year, but also offset some operating expenses.
"That's not a knock on Martinsville. It's just a matter of demographics," Anderson said. "Legislators would more readily justify the expenditure for a new building in Roanoke than Martinsville."
Anderson cautioned that the museum's board "doesn't want to give the appearance to anyone that that we're about to abandon Martinsville." That is why, Gendron said, the museum's leadership is prepared to guarantee "the existing levels of services in education and exhibits" will continue in Martinsville.
That way, she said, Martinsville won't be losing anything, although she acknowledges that some there may see it that way.
Indeed, some Martinsville legislators and business leaders think they have been blindsided by what they regard as the sudden talk of the museum's expansion to Roanoke - economic development chief Frank Novakowski says it has been done "in a clandestine way" - and are gearing up for a fight.
"I've been given no indication that the patient was terminal," said Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County. "I didn't even know it was sick."
"This is one of the few crown jewels in Martinsville," said Bob Maricich, a Martinsville furniture company executive who heads the museum's fund-raising arm.
"Any study is going to show that Roanoke will generate more traffic than Martinsville. You can do another study and show Charlottesville will generate more [than Roanoke] or that Richmond will generate more, and ultimately all museums would wind up in Washington, New York and Los Angeles.
"One of the beauties of this museum is its location. I think the community in Martinsville would make a strong pitch to keep the expansion here."
The museum holds special significance for many Martinsville leaders because of its connection to the late Speaker of the House A.L. Philpott of Henry County. The museum was founded as a private entity in 1985, but Philpott helped direct state funds to it and orchestrated its takeover by the state in 1988.
But Gendron, the museum's executive director, said the museum has not been well-funded since then. During Gov. Douglas Wilder's four years in office, the museum's annual appropriation has been cut 32 percent, to $2 million, she said.
With that reduced state support, Gendron said, some on the museum's 25-member board of trustees began wondering in 1992 whether Martinsville would be the best place to financially support the museum's proposed expansion.
"But for political reasons, it couldn't be discussed openly," she said. "You do realize that the Secretary of Natural Resources [Elizabeth Haskell] is from Martinsville and owns the Martinsville Bulletin, and the governor's chief of staff [Jay Shropshire] was from Martinsville."
Nevertheless, some discussion of the museum's future has taken place privately. "We are members of the board of trustees of the Virginia Museum of Natural History," Anderson said, "and the emphasis should be placed on Virginia. We should be mindful of the Martinsville location," but the board's overall duty is to the state, not Martinsville.
At the same time, another state project - Explore - has encountered financial difficulties of its own. The state owns the land for Explore, but has never provided the project with any operating funds. Through the years, a private group, the River Foundation, has raised the money to hire the park's staff and re-assemble the 19th-century farmstead on the site.
But the foundation gave notice in early 1993 that it will cease paying the park's operating funds in June 1994, and Explore leaders began searching for ways to get the state to pick up the tab.
The general idea of merging Explore and the museum has been kicked around by museum leaders and Explore backers since at least last summer; Bell said he first heard about it then from Roanoke Electric Steel founder John Hancock, a primary Explore benefactor.
In October, the museum conducted its internal study to see how many tourists might visit a Roanoke site, Gendron said.
Explore Park Director Rupert Cutler, who says he is "thrilled" by the prospect of merging the two operations, said Gendron and museum architects toured Explore "several months ago" to scout three potential locations for the museum's new facility.
On Dec. 22, Gendron organized a meeting at the Dutch Inn restaurant in Collinsville among Bell, Cranwell and the three state legislators who represent Martinsville - Armstrong, Del. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville, and state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount.
The participants say the group simply kicked around some ideas on how to have the museum take over Explore, and there was no discussion of the museum's expansion taking place in the Roanoke Valley.
Cranwell is reluctant to say more. "I thought we had all agreed: Before we discussed anything in the media, we'd have a definite proposal," he said, and so far he doesn't have one.
But since then, Bell has been working with the museum's staff to develop his proposal for a state study - which adds the wrinkle of involving the Richmond-based Division of Natural Heritage.
That division, which employs 23 full-time employees, catalogs rare species in Virginia and manages the state's 15 natural area preserves.
As such, Gendron said, it works closely with the Martinsville museum, and some scientists believe it would be a natural for a merger. On Monday, she said, the museum's seven-member executive committee endorsed the study.
Bell said he would like to see the study wind up proposing that Explore, the museum and the natural heritage program be combined into a single entity, which would be headquartered in Martinsville. That way, Bell said, Martinsville would gain the "prestige" and jobs of a state government office.
The museum currently employs 36 people full time and 20 others part time in Martinsville. Bell said he would like to write into law a guarantee that those numbers would not diminish - an additional enticement to Martinsville to support the museum's expansion into Roanoke.
He believes Martinsville legislators are more interested in making sure that city does not lose state jobs than making sure the museum's main exhibit space be located there.
Bell says he realizes there are plenty of political obstacles in the General Assembly to any plan to merge Explore and the museum - even if the Richmond-based program is not involved.
But he says he hopes such a merger can be packaged in the name of government reorganization. He also hopes to persuade legislators that the museum will generate more revenue in Roanoke than in Martinsville, and thus cost the state less to operate.
The museum's current low visitation "is a red flag," Bell said, warning Martinsville legislators that if they do not back his plan that would guarantee some exhibit space in Martinsville, someday the state might simply shut down the museum entirely. Without more visitation, "the long-term pressure on the museum will increase," he predicted.
\ AN EXPLORE MERGER?\ \ THE VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
What it is: A museum and research center on Virginia's geology and pre-history.
Where it is: Martinsville.
How it is operated: A state agency, under the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The museum's director reports to a 25-member board of trustees.\ \ WHO IS PROPOSING WHAT
Del. Richard Cranwell says he has met with Martinsville legislators to "brainstorm" ways for Explore and the museum to "join forces," nothing more.
State Sen. Brandon Bell says he is planning to introduce legislation calling for a state study on merging Explore, the museum - and a Richmond-based program studying rare plants and animals.
The museum's executive committee has endorsed Bell's call for a study.
The museum's board chairman and executive director, along with Bell, say they envision a plan that would keep open the current exhibits in Martinsville but build the museum's proposed $16 million expansion at Explore.\ \ WHO HAS THE SAY-SO
The museum's board of trustees, the state board that operates Explore, the General Assembly and the governor.\ \ QUOTABLE
"I compare this to the Fed attempting to merge two ailing savings and loans to form a stronger institution."
- Seward Anderson, chairman of the museum's board of trustees.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB