THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508270055
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Long : 194 lines
Robert and Ann Allen, a gray-haired couple from Naples, Fla., paused in their tour of the exhibits at the Elizabeth II State Historic Site to talk with site manager Bill Rea.
They talked in front of a dimly lit poster with pictures of village life of the natives encountered by the first English settlers in the New World who landed on Roanoke Island more than 400 years ago. Some of the smaller pictures were badly damaged and peeling off the wall.
The Allens, self-described ``museum freaks,'' were in the second day of their visit to Dare County. They had watched the 20-minute slide show and toured the Elizabeth II with costumed guides Friday before viewing the exhibits.
``It's exciting what you have here,'' said Ann Allen.
But she wondered why the state did not replace the damaged posters, provide a modern exhibit space, add more costumed guides to give more of a flavor of life in the 16th century and include more information about the Native American people.
Rea told her many of her ideas are part of a $10 million expansion of the historic site, scheduled for completion in 1997.
The expansion plan - about 13 years in the making - more than doubles the size of the wooden buildings housing the Elizabeth II exhibits and the Outer Banks History Center; adds a 238-seat indoor theater that will feature a 40-minute film of Native American life on the island; expands the walking trails on Ice Plant Island; and includes a bandstand and outdoor theater that seats 500 people. The plan also calls for a new maintenance building and a catering kitchen that will increase the number of meetings that can be held at the site.
``North Carolina has never taken advantage of what it has here,'' said Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Manteo, while on the way to Pinehurst on Saturday to speak to a gathering of North Carolina county commissioners. ``There is nothing at that site that can truly tell the story of the Roanoke voyages.
``Right now there's no reason to come to the historic site other than to see a boat,'' he said. ``There's nothing of the rich and treasured story that should be told.''
Basnight and other supporters of Elizabeth II and Ice Plant Island say the story of the Roanoke voyages is as important to the state and the nation as the stories of Jamestown, Williamsburg, Mystic Seaport and other historic sites.
``Jamestown and some of the others have done a good job of telling their history for a long time,'' said Deloris Harrell, executive director of the Roanoke Island Commission, the 24-member panel that oversees Ice Plant Island. ``Now we will have a chance to tell about our place in history.''
But not everyone agrees. THE DEBATE
The Elizabeth II State Historic Site was at the heart of budget debates in the General Assembly this summer as the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate wrangled over how to spend the state's $60 million capital budget.
Tagged ``the boat'' by its opponents, the expansion plan is a pet project of Basnight, 48, a native of Manteo and a North Carolina history devotee widely recognized as a master at garnering money for his district.
Basnight-supported projects have often drawn fire from his fellow legislators - appropriations for the First Flight Centennial Commission and state funding for two bike paths in Dare County have raised eyebrows in Raleigh.
But none has rankled some policy-makers - or even some of Basnight's constituents - like the plan to improve the Elizabeth II site.
``The perception . . . is the question of whether the Elizabeth II will benefit everybody or just the tourist trade in Dare County,'' said Don Follmer, spokesman for House Speaker Harold J. Brubaker. ``They regarded it as pork of the first magnitude.''
During a news conference in Raleigh to announce the budget deal, the normally affable Senate Majority Leader Richard Conder, a Richmond County Democrat, bristled at what he called negative reporting on the project when a reporter asked whether ``the boat'' made it into the spending plan.
``The Elizabeth II is in the state seal,'' he said, while pointing to a replica of the seal behind him.''
The Elizabeth II, a 69-foot juniper and yellow pine ship with 65-foot masts, dominates the view from the Manteo waterfront from its berth in Dough's Creek at 29-acre Ice Plant Island.
Since 1983, when the ship was still under construction, it has drawn more than 1 million people - about 110,330 in 1994, making it the second most popular of the state's 23 historic sites (Only Fort Fisher, an earthen Civil War fort near Wilmington, draws more visitors).
A study by North Carolina State University estimated that visitors in 1994 pumped more than $15.3 million in the local economy after touring the ship.
The Elizabeth II is also one of the cheapest to run of the state's major tourist attractions - costing taxpayers $1.39 per visitor, compared with $15 per visitor for Tryon Palace in New Bern and $2.07 for the state aquariums.
But it has been the focus of several debates - usually involving money - in its 12-year history.
Elizabeth II is a replica of the types of ships used in the 16th century. Built for about $650,000, it was financed by private donations and was a highlight of the state's 400th anniversary celebration of the Roanoke Voyages, the first English exploration and settlement in the New World.
In 1982, the General Assembly appropriated about $1.4 million to buy land and build a visitor center for the Elizabeth II, which was donated to the state. The current debate involves the $5 million appropriation that was approved by state lawmakers as part of the state's $394 million capital and expansion budget.
Rep. John M. Nichols, a Craven County Republican, said the project is wasteful spending, considering the state's other needs.
``We need to do a number of things in this state before we need to fund a so-called replica of a boat in Dare County,'' he said. ``We need to build schools; we need to educate our children; we need to clean up our rivers, and that's going to cost money.''
Basnight said funding for the Ice Plant Island project is as important as funding for any of the state's 22 other historic sites or museums and is a fraction of the money spent on other tourist attractions: The North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro has received more than $40 million in capital funds since 1973, and the new Museum of History in Raleigh was built for $24.9 million plus $8.1 million for furniture and exhibits.
Basnight and others say politics lies at the heart of the Elizabeth II debate. The ship, they say, provides a convenient way for legislators, particularly those who face tight races in 1996, to score political points with their constituents.
``If it weren't in my district, it would not have generated any criticism,'' Basnight said. ``It's only because of where I reside that the project has been questioned.''
One Republican lawmaker agrees.
``If the boat was in Raleigh or even in Hyde County nobody would have asked a question about it,'' said W. Robert Grady, an Onslow County Republican. ``But its location caused people to look at it more carefully and perhaps unfairly so.''
But it has been questioned by opinion makers outside the Raleigh beltline and from both ends of the political spectrum.
In an editorial earlier this month, the Wilmington Star-News chided the project as ``a big load of pork'' and said the spending is ``way out of line.''
Conservatives at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh say funding for the Elizabeth II - and other state-supported tourist attractions - symbolizes the wasteful government spending that is best left to local governments and private groups.
Liberals at the Common Sense Foundation in Raleigh believe the appropriation is a symbol of misplaced priorities from a conservative General Assembly that eliminates the intangibles tax for wealthy North Carolinians and fails to fund a successful housing program for the poor, while pouring money into one of the state's fastest-growing counties for a project that will benefit few North Carolinians. THE FUNDING LOSERS
While Harrell and the Roanoke Island Commission prepare to break ground this winter for the expansion project, the Rev. David L. Moore, the founder and driving force behind the Metropolitan Low Income Housing Corp., is trying to figure out how to run his 4-year old program without his principal source of funding.
``It really causes you to think,'' said Moore, pastor of Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church. Moore is one of the Democratic party's leaders in Beaufort County on the western fringe of Basnight's 1st Senate District. ``I'm for the boat, but at what cost,'' he said.
The housing corporation's largest project to date, known as Project Hope, has helped revive one of Washington, N.C.'s, poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods.
The nonprofit housing and community development group that, along with city and state government and local lenders, is helping to revitalize a 10-block area along Fourth Street in Washington while providing homes to low-income families who would normally rely on public housing.
With the help of Housing Trust Fund grant, the church lowers the interest on the loans and passes them along to selected applicants.
But the Housing Trust Fund, created by state lawmakers in 1987, saw its $4 million evaporate in the closing days of the General Assembly in the same budget agreement that enabled legislators to overcome their impasse over capital spending.
``It means we're not going to be able to do some of the work we had hoped to do,'' said Bill Dowse, director of program development for the Housing Trust Fund. ``Ultimately, it's going to mean some programs we won't do at all and some programs will be scaled back.''
Basnight said that the Housing Trust Fund is not the only way to improve the lives of the region's poorest residents.
Funding for the Ice Plant Island project will boost tourism and add new jobs to the region. ``This is an economic windfall for the state and it will mean jobs for some low-income families like those David Moore is trying to help.'' THE FUTURE
Besides funding for the historic site expansion, the 1995 expansion and capital budget includes a provision that establishes the existing Roanoke Island Commission as an independent group that will oversee operation of Ice Plant Island's historic sites and be a conduit for other historic preservation efforts on Roanoke Island.
While the group and the Elizabeth II will still fall under the state's Department of Cultural Resources, the financial burden of site operations and activities will gradually shift away from the state to the local agency.
The legislation also establishes an endowment fund intended to help the site move to self-sufficiency within about five years.
``When all this is over, when you have the ground breaking, people will say what we did with the money was right,'' Basnight said. by CNB