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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 16, 1995                   TAG: 9503160040
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXPLORE STILL HASN'T PAID ITS BILLS

Park administrators say they hope to pay off most of the $203,000 debt this spring by selling two pieces of surplus property.

But the long delay hasn't set well with some creditors. One has complained to the governor; another has threatened to picket the home of park Director Rupert Cutler.

"Something needs to be changed," said Doug Epps, vice president at Overington Graphics, which is owed more than $10,000 for its part in building the signs that describe the park's frontier-era buildings. "Without that payment, we showed a loss for the fiscal year."

"I remain very frustrated," agreed Wayne Campbell of Campbell Construction, who stopped work on the park's public restrooms last summer when Explore fell behind in paying his company more than $21,000. "I think it's bad publicity for them."

Epps for a time threatened to have friends march in front of Cutler's home; Campbell wrote Gov. George Allen, who sent word through a Cabinet secretary that there's nothing he can do.

Explore administrators say there's little they can do, either: They just don't have the money.

The cash crunch at the living-history park in eastern Roanoke County - owned and operated by a state authority appointed by the governor - began last summer, when workers rushed to get the park in shape for its July 1 opening.

When all the bills came due, Explore administrators realized they were facing a $220,000 deficit. They acknowledged that, in their haste to open, they hadn't exercised proper financial oversight - one reason why the park's governing board hired former Vinton Town Manager George Nester as a part-time general manager.

Explore also laid off seven workers last fall, including longtime park engineer Richard Burrow, in an effort to pare the payroll.

Since then, Explore - through its government funding, private donations and admission fees - has been running a slight monthly surplus, and has been using that to reduce its debt, Nester said. "We're trying to dig our way out of it slowly."

But as of this week, Nester said Explore still owes $203,513 to 86 vendors, ranging from "a few dollars" to about $21,000.

Some of those are recent debts, Nester said, but "most of it, without a question" was incurred during the run-up to the park's opening.

He said there's little that can be done until Explore sells two houses it identified last fall as surplus property.

Explore bought houses in the late 1980s as parts of larger tracts of land it wanted. Over the years, it's declared those properties outside the park boundaries as "surplus" and put them on the market.

The latest houses for sale are appraised at $89,700 and $110,000. Nester said a potential buyer has offered the appraised value for the first house, and he hopes that deal will be completed this spring.

As for the public restrooms that Campbell stopped work on last summer, Nester said he hopes they'll be ready when the park reopens for the season April 1.