Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412270065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Not everybody agrees with the penny-pinching Republican chief executive's assertion that the state does not need the Chesapeake, a vessel that costs about $53,000 a year to maintain.
``It's a bad idea,'' said Sen. Edward Holland, D-Arlington. His father, Edwin Holland, gave the 57-foot craft to the state 20 years ago.
Allen's proposed budget amendments, presented Monday to the General Assembly money committees, include sale of the yacht. The governor believes the boat will fetch about $100,000 to help balance the state budget.
But Holland and several other lawmakers say Allen is being shortsighted.
The Chesapeake has lured business and jobs to Virginia by showing the state's ports, rivers and bays to the captains of industry. Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, said Allen's plan will reduce Virginia to ``taking people out in a rowboat.''
But Allen said the yacht seldom is used. It was deployed 15 times during fiscal 1993, during the administration of Democratic Gov. Douglas Wilder.
Hugh Keough, who was director of the state Department of Economic Development for five years under Wilder and Gov. Gerald Baliles, said the boat ``was used sparingly at best.''
In Accomack County on the state's Eastern Shore, where the Chesapeake is docked, County Administrator Arthur Fisher is bothered by the plan.
``I don't know about state priorities, but it's not welcome news to us,'' he said.
Fisher said the vessel is used to ferry medical and social service personnel and supplies to residents of Tangier Island, in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, during bad weather when small boats and planes cannot reach the island.
by CNB