DATE: Saturday, June 7, 1997                TAG: 9706070286

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS,  STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

BILL WOULD BLOCK VISITOR CENTER FUNDS HOUSE APPROVES PROPOSAL TO HALT APPROPRIATIONS OVER THREE YEARS.

Two major roadside visitor centers in northeastern North Carolina would lose $75,000 a year each in state funding under a bill passed by the House of Representatives.

The welcome centers are the large U.S. 17 motor plaza near the Virginia border in Camden County and a nearly new complex on U.S. 64 at Columbia on the Scuppernong River in Tyrrell County.

Five other welcome centers around the state would lose funding in the three-year phase-out called for in the House bill.

An extensive expansion program is in progress at the U.S. 17 center near South Mills along the Intracoastal Waterway. The Columbia center opened two years ago.

House and Senate budget conferees are expected to meet next week, and a vigorous Senate fight against the cut in visitor center money is expected. Both chambers hope to have a reconciled budget bill ready by the end of this month before the beginning of a new fiscal year July 1.

State Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, president pro-tem of the Senate, is expected to go to bat for the centers that would be cut off from state money after three years. Both of the sites are on highways heavily traveled by tourists heading for the Outer Banks.

``Senator Basnight knows how valuable these welcome centers are,'' Norma Ware, Basnight's legal counselor, said Friday. Backing Basnight in the expected fight will be all Democratic members of the Albemarle delegation.

The other visitor centers on the hit list are on U.S. 17 in Brunswick County; U.S. 441 in Macon County; Boone center in Watauga County; U.S. Highway 29 in Caswell County and Highway 70 in Carteret County.

The House legislation originated with N.C. Rep. Joanne W. Bowie, a Greensboro Republican. Under her proposal:

For each center $75,000 would be appropriated for the 1997-98 fiscal year; $37,500 would be appropriated for the 1998-99 fiscal year, and $18,750 for the 1999-2000 fiscal year.

``Thereafter, it is the intention of the General Assembly that no additional state funds shall be appropriated for any of these visitor centers'' the bill reads.

Bowie said Friday she felt that the state Department of Commerce would be the best agency to operate the visitor centers.

She also said she would incorporate in her bill a provision calling for a House-Senate Transportation Oversight Committee to pass on all funding for visitor centers, present and future.

``No new visitor center shall be approved by the General Assembly without a positive recommendation from the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversite Committee,'' said the concluding paragraph of Bowie's legislation.

The South Mills visitor center on U.S. 17 recently resolved vexing financial problems.

The Northeast Economic Development Commission/Partnership recently took over disbursement of operating money to that center. The visitor center's money had been handled by the Albemarle Commission.

``We thought we were finally out of the woods,'' said Penny Leary-Smith, superintendent of the South Mills center. ``Now I don't know what will happen.''

In the past, county funds have contributed to the upkeep and operation of some visitor centers.

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