ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 11, 1996 TAG: 9603110079
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES C. RYAN
CATHRYN McCue's Feb. 19 article (``Group wanting to save highway tries to save itself'') describes differences of opinion, not to mention outright animosity, among members of the Board of Directors and others closely associated with Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway. As I see it, the crux of the problem is ignorance about or refusal to acknowledge exactly what Friends was established to be and do.
As McCue reported, Friends was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1989. What follows is its primary chartered purpose, not one word of which has changed in the nearly seven years since:
``To support and promote the Blue Ridge Parkway, including raising funds for renovation of existing historic structures associated with the Blue Ridge Parkway, to provide construction of facilities for use of travelers on the Blue Ridge Parkway, to lessen the burdens of government by providing funds for enhancement of [the] Blue Ridge Parkway, and to provide educational opportunities for those interested in the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the history, culture and geography of the surrounding area.''
Those words should make it clear to everyone that Friends was and is intended to be a fund-raising, service-oriented adjunct to the Blue Ridge Parkway. And for the organization to fulfill its mission, close cooperation and communication with the parkway superintendent and staff are essential.
Equally significant are words not found in the charter. These include ``equal,'' ``autonomous,'' ``independent,'' ``advocate'' and ``advocacy.''
Given these facts, your readers can decide for themselves whether they will contribute to an organization created to serve the parkway, but whose bylaws have been carefully revised in an effort to give legitimacy to first serving its own interests.
Anyone who questions the suitability of applying a self-serving label to Friends should call treasurer Roy Lochner at Roanoke Valley Realty and ask how much support Friends has given the parkway in the past couple of years. Placing the tips of a thumb and forefinger together provides a clue as to what his answer should be.
I gave 12 years of my working life to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I feel certain that I'm much more aware of how it operates and why, and what its problems and opportunities are, than is Friends' former executive director Vera Guise and those who subscribe to her management practices. I was there when Friends was spanked into life. I know why it was created, and further know that what it is today is nowhere close to the original and still much-needed intent.
I challenge Lochner, Richard Wells and others on the Friends' board of directors, including Roanokers Lynn Davis and Lee Eddy, to allow the organization to comply with its chartered purposes or to resign. Either way, the board should make a detailed public accounting of what has been done with funds a reported 2,000 members recently contributed to help the ``endangered'' Blue Ridge Parkway.
Real friends of the parkway will accept that challenge. It will be interesting to see what the parkway's alleged friends do.
James C. Ryan, of Glenville, N.C., retired manager for the Blue Ridge Parkway, serves on the Board of Directors for Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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