ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, December 18, 1996           TAG: 9612180060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON

EXPLORE SET FOR REQUEST

Explore Park will ask the state next month for $3.5 million to connect its future restaurant and visitor center and other facilities to municipal water and sewer service.

Many competing interests also will ask for money when the General Assembly begins its 1997 session Jan. 8. The living history park in Roanoke County could be turned down, as it was in 1996.

That wouldn't delay the opening of its planned 100-seat Brugh Tavern restaurant or the previously announced Arthur Taubman Visitor Center, which could be finished as soon as October 1997, said Rupert Cutler, park executive director, on Tuesday.

Explore Park officials said modern plumbing will enable the park to reach its potential faster and better serve crowds in the 1997 or 1998 seasons that are expected to handily exceed this year's attendance of about 30,000 people. About the time that the restaurant and visitor center open, so will a park access road from the Blue Ridge Parkway that is expected to give many more tourists a reason to visit Explore Park, officials said.

The park presently relies on three wells and three septic tanks.

LENGTH: Short :   31 lines
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997