Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510270058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It's all project management. You launch a shuttle. You move a log cabin," he said. "It's all done with people."
In fact, the mortise-and-tenon joints of a dismantled historic building in the park, which is waiting to be rebuilt, resemble the tongue-and-groove couplings on the space shuttles he used to help launch.
Simmons, who started Sept. 1, talked Thursday about his ideas for improving the park and the experience he brings to the job. During the park's six-month hiatus, Simmons intends to transport to the park and erect the historic Brugh Tavern, Mount Union Church and Murray Cabin.
Explore Park, in eastern Roanoke County, opens Saturday for the last weekend of its second year in operation. Paid attendance stands at 20,000 people, equal to the number of visitors during the park's inaugural season, but less than half of Executive Director Rupert Cutler's prediction last spring of 50,000 visitors for the current season. The park will close Monday and will reopen April 1.
Cutler has admitted that his projection was overly optimistic, Simmons said, but he added that the lower turnout resulted in part from unexpectedly rainy weather, especially early in the season.
"We're financially in pretty good shape," Simmons said, because the park's assets outweigh its debts. But the park has sold surplus land to retire debts related to heavy start-up costs and will have to sell even more, he said. The state paid $6 million for the park's land and contributes $400,000 annually to its $1 million budget.
To draw more people through gates next year, Simmons promises a major event at the opening and closing and on several weekends in between, and special activities every weekend, instead of about once a month. He wants to smooth a "pretty rough" trail to the Roanoke River and advertise the park on the Internet.
The new boss has made inroads with staff members who work on park grounds and in its administrative center - two trailers in the woods Simmons calls "mission control."
"He's not an ivory tower manager. He's somebody who sits down and gets everybody's opinion," said Mark Shanks, education director. To Shanks, Simmons seems equally comfortable in a sport coat handling official duties as he is in "chinos and a work shirt out working" around the park.
Simmons, 46, worked for 15 years at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida handling jobs with increasing responsibility. He oversaw conversion of two launch pads for the Apollo moon-mission spaceships to shuttle use. He was a launch team leader when the space shuttle Challenger exploded and helped oversee the investigation.
A nagging concern about Florida, he said, was that those who wanted to preserve the state's history often yielded to developers' bulldozers.
"Florida has paved over much of its history. Virginians feature their history," he said. "My heart's always been in this kind of environment."
He has taken family vacations at Smith Mountain Lake for the past six years.
by CNB