Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 22, 1994 TAG: 9402220078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After six years wandering in the fiscal wilderness, Explore Park finally appears to be on the edge of its promised land: a place in the state budget.
Over the weekend in Richmond, the money committees of the Senate and House of Delegates finished work on their competing versions of the 1994-96 state budget.
But both panels included money for the living-history park in Roanoke County: $400,000 per year for the next two years in the House proposal and $500,000 per year in the Senate version.
Regardless of how the difference is worked out in the next few weeks, Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, said Monday it seems assured that Explore will get at least the $400,000 per year that the House Appropriations Committee is recommending.
That's far less than the $1 million per year that the park had asked for, but for the financially strapped and oft-ridiculed Explore, the prospect of any state funding is a milestone.
For one thing, said park Director Rupert Cutler, the money the legislative panels are proposing would be enough to open the park on a part-time basis starting July 2 - a date already pushed back from May, primarily because bad weather has delayed construction.
For now, Cutler is envisioning that the park, which is intended to re-create life on the Appalachian frontier and teach visitors about the North American environment, will be open on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays during the summer.
But just as importantly, if the budget proposals hold, this will be the first time since 1988 that the state has given money to Explore - and the first time it has ever provided operating money for the park.
Previously, the state had restricted its appropriations to planning and buying land for the 1,300-acre site along the Roanoke River, just east of Vinton.
Both money panels attached the expected strings to Explore's money, requiring the park to raise an equal amount in private contributions before the state turns over its appropriation.
But Cutler predicted that would be a snap. After all, he said, the River Foundation, a group of Roanoke Valley business leaders, already raises about $500,000 a year for Explore.
"State operational support will make it easier to raise money from other sources," Cutler said, because contributors will realize that Explore is here to stay.
Cutler insisted that if the state funds Explore's operating expenses over the next two years, that will establish a precedent. "In effect, the state has adopted Explore as a regular obligation," he said.
Explore's legislative backers aren't so sure, though. "There's absolutely no assurance to anybody when you're working with the legislative process," warned House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County.
Regardless, any state funding takes some of the financial pressure off Explore.
Although the park is set up as an independent arm of state government, it has depended on private contributions from the River Foundation to fund its operations.
But Explore planners long have complained that there was little money left over for construction, and the park would never amount to much without state funding.
Their concern took on new urgency last year when the foundation - looking for ways to speed up the park's progress - announced it would cease paying the park's operating expenses after July 1. Instead, the foundation said it would direct its contributions solely toward construction.
In the year since, Explore planners have ardently lobbied state officials to pick up the tab for the park's operating expenses.
But unlike in previous years, Roanoke Valley legislators - Cranwell and Bell, primarily - got behind Explore's request to give it a bipartisan push.
Explore's new emphasis on the environment and education also helped, Bell said. "I think a lot of credit should go to Rupert Cutler and Norman Fintel," the retired Roanoke College president who heads the River Foundation, Bell said. "They spent a lot of time helping people understand what Explore is now, that the previous impression people had may not have been all that correct."
The legislature's focus on the proposed Walt Disney theme park in Northern Virginia also aided Explore, Bell said. "Everyone understands that if we're going to have success with Disney, we've got to spend money to update and promote tourist attractions elsewhere in the state."
He noted that the proposed state budget is sprinkled with appropriations for other tourist projects - from more than $943,000 for the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk to $40,000 for a coal-mine museum in Tazewell County.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB