Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406260114
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GALAX LENGTH: Medium
To the Colorado congressman who tried to kill it last week, however, the place smells like pork.
"In the past few years, I've become concerned about what we're asking the Park Service to do," said Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo. "I'm tired of seeing items in appropriations bills that were never considered or authorized prior to finding their way into one of the 13 budget bills. This is just one more example of pork politics and why our deficit is hopelessly out of control."
So, on Wednesday, when the House of Representatives took up the budget bill for the Interior Department, Hefley tried to remove the $5 million included for building the mountain music center. He also tried to kill the funding for two other projects, in Hawaii and Pennsylvania.
Hefley's effort failed, by a vote of 282-146, meaning that the Interior Department budget, with the $5 million for the mountain music center intact, goes to the Senate.
Hefley says it is projects such as this one that have left the National Park Service strapped for cash. "The only business the Park Service should be in is protecting and interpreting sites important to the natural and cultural heritage of this country. I don't think a mountain music center fits into this category," he said.
Boucher, who has been shepherding the project for years, disagrees.
Boucher said music that had its genesis in Carroll and Grayson counties in Virginia and Surry County, N.C., has developed into the bluegrass, Western swing and modern country music that enjoys worldwide popularity today.
It is indigenous to that region, he said, but has its own roots elsewhere in the world as a blending of music from Germany, the Celtic countries of Europe, and Africa, he said.
The region and its music represent a cultural resource that deserves an interpretive center, Boucher said. Many musicians still live in the region, which boasts an annual international old-time fiddlers convention, and their work could get further exposure through the center.
It also will serve as a magnet for tourism, he said.
Boucher has obtained more than $2.6 million in federal planning and land acquisition money for the project over the years, and had asked the Clinton administration to include funding for the first construction phase in the Interior bill passed Wednesday.
"I am very optimistic that the Senate will agree with this action and we will be able to begin construction next year," Boucher said.
Hefley argues that such a project would be better off in private hands.
Let the private sector invest in and operate these projects and let the Park Service do the job it was created to do, he said.
Will Callaway, with the National Parks and Conservation Association, said there is language in the bill encouraging the Park Service to seek an outside operator for the center once it is up and running. "I think we would tend to agree with that," he said.
The Washington, D.C.-based association, a private environmental watchdog of national parks, has generally opposed new funding. "It's just a question of, when you have limited funds, should the Park Service continue to develop fairly expensive construction projects?" Callaway said.
But it will not oppose the music center project, even though construction does require new funding. Callaway said the project has been developed in the right way, by involving people in the area in its planning.
"That's a very positive thing, that they've tried to work with the community," he said.
The idea for the project dates back at least to the 1980s. It was one of the recommendations of the Lacy Commission, established by the General Assembly to make a two-year study for ways to improve the economy of Southwest Virginia.
The city of Galax, on the Carroll-Grayson border, donated about 1,000 acres to the project. The city had obtained the land on Fisher Peak to protect the watershed of its water source.
The rest of the 2,200-acre site, including a small segment in Surry County, has now been purchased. Dewberry and Davis of Marion have completed the architectural and engineering plans for the site.
Another $5 million must be approved in next year's budget to complete construction, which will take about two years once ground is broken.
The center would offer programs about the development and history of mountain music to draw into the area some of the 2.2 million people who annually use the Blue Ridge Parkway. It would house music demonstrations, exhibits, studios for instrument-makers and public performances in its 10,000-square-foot building and 300-seat outdoor amphitheater.
by CNB