THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 25, 1994 TAG: 9406250212
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: 940625 LENGTH: RALEIGH
The Senate included in a package of budget modifications it approved earlier this month a plan to create a 26-member commission that would plan activities to commemorate the centennial of the first successful manned flight and included an appropriation of $75,000 for the commission.
{REST} The commission is the brainchild of Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, a great admirer of Orville and Wilbur Wright, who conducted the first manned, heavier-than-air, powered flight Dec. 17, 1903, on the Outer Banks just a few miles from Basnight's home.
Over the next nine years - nearly three times as long as the Wright brothers spent in North Carolina before their first flight succeeded - the commission, composed of officials from North Carolina and Ohio, home to the Wright brothers, would plan a series of annual events leading up to a larger celebration in 2003, Basnight said.
Through the commission, which would be known as the First Flight Centennial Commission, Basnight hopes to get federal money to upgrade the museum, which is now part of a National Park Service site in Kill Devil Hills honoring the Wright brothers.
``I want to build something representative of the event,'' Basnight said. ``And plan to open it on the 100th anniversary or shortly before.''
The House, in its package of budget modifications, excluded the First Flight Centennial Commission and deleted the funds from its budget after some members questioned the need for the appropriation.
Basnight said Thursday that he will continue to press for the commission and the appropriation. by CNB