Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990 TAG: 9007260470
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A House subcommittee approved $1.5 million to buy land for the center, which would be built near the intersection of the Blue Ridge Parkway with the proposed Roanoke River Parkway in Roanoke County.
Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, said approval of the funds by the full House and Senate was "pretty much" a done deal, because Virginia Sens. John Warner and Charles Robb also sought funding for the visitors' center.
Olin said the biggest obstacle to final approval would be the "budget summit" between President Bush and congressional leaders. "They could lop something off" the budget, Olin said.
Roanoke Valley officials have long bemoaned the lack of a visitors' center along the Blue Ridge Parkway to direct tourists to attractions in the area.
With that in mind, Olin helped obtain $450,000 two years ago for the National Park Service to draw plans for such a center.
That study recommended that the visitors' center be built on land owned by Roanoke businessman Al Hammond. This week, Hammond began lobbying for the Park Service to spare his land so he can develop a golf course.
Instead, Hammond wants the visitors' center built on the regional landfill when it closes in a few years, a site Park Service planners considered but rejected.
Olin, who said he'll be going back to Congress in a few years to ask for an undetermined sum to build the visitors' center, said he isn't advocating any particular site.
In other parkway-related news, Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, said he'll meet with Roanoke River Parkway boosters but doesn't expect them to change his mind that the scenic road shouldn't be built east of the proposed Explore living-history state park.
Former Bedford County Supervisor Ebo Fauber, a member of Explore's governing body, said Tuesday that Payne would meet with Explore officials in early August to "rethink" his position.
But contacted Wednesday, Payne said that's not quite so.
He said he agreed to meet with Olin and Explore project director Bern Ewert to learn more about Explore.
But Payne said he expected to stand by his decision that building the river parkway beyond Explore to Hardy Ford - as Explore planners advocate and the legislation authorizing the road calls for - would be a waste of money.
Payne said he took his position against building the parkway all the way to Smith Mountain Lake "with a great deal of forethought. That's not something I want to do a 180 on."
The Park Service is drawing plans for a 9-mile river parkway that would run from Vinton to the Blue Ridge Parkway to Explore to Hardy Ford. However, Congress would have to approve more money to build the road, so Payne's position may prove crucial. He sits on the House committee that handles road funding.
Parkway planners will hold an open house to solicit citizen comments from 4 to 8 p.m. today at the Vinton War Memorial.
by CNB