Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 3, 1995 TAG: 9502030088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Virginia Museum of Natural History seemed to have emerged anew late last year, after a gubernatorial commission that had considered a proposal to cut off its $2 million in state funding rejected the idea.
The museum - the only one in the state that falls under the budget of the Department of Natural Resources - also survived almost unscathed from budget cuts proposed last month by Gov. George Allen.
But this is the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville - a museum with internationally known curators and the politics to match.
The museum's board of trustees meets today in Richmond, and tension again promises to be thick. At front and center will be the museum's executive director, Connie Gendron.
That controversy has gripped the museum yet again puzzles at least one trustee.
``If I knew what was going on, I would try to do something about it,'' said William Shear, a biology professor at Hampden-Sydney College.
The most recent episode is tied to the fallout from an effort last week by State Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, to amend the state budget and have the museum's budget cut in half.
Bell's move kick-started emotions.
Some suggested Gendron was in cahoots with Bell to slash the museum's budget in a plot to weaken it to make a stronger case for relocation.
Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville, and Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, said this week that Gendron has lost her effectiveness and should step down. Ditto from Martinsville Mayor George Adams and Henry County Board of Supervisors Chairman Francis Zehr.
Adams and Zehr sent a letter to the board of trustees calling for the trustees to approve a search for a new director at today's meeting.
But several longtime board members stand firmly behind Gendron.
Gendron was hired - and can be replaced - only by the museum board.
The issue isn't on the agenda, but it's likely to be discussed during today's meeting. Those involved spent a good part of the week discussing it.
``The morale at the museum is terrible,'' Armstrong said Thursday. Gendron ``has become a lightning rod for controversy.''
Fund-raising efforts have been all but destroyed in Martinsville because Gendron wants to move the museum to Roanoke or one of several other localities interested in the facility, Armstrong said.
``Has Connie Gendron ever denied that she wanted to move the museum to Roanoke?'' he asked. ``If she's not involved in a plan to move it, then let her deny it, period!''
Armstrong, Goode and other Martinsville and Henry County officials were incensed last week when Bell offered a budget amendment that would cut the museum's budget by close to $1 million and give the money to Roanoke County's Explore Park and other Roanoke-area attractions.
Bell suggested a year ago that Explore Park take over the museum.
Gendron said Thursday that the accusation tying her to Bell is ``laughable.''
However, she never has quashed the idea that the museum may relocate. She hasn't ruled out its place in Martinsville, either, she said.
``I simply want to do what's in the best interest of the museum,'' she said. ``I'm only doing my job.''
William Shear, who has been associated with the museum since 1987, said: ``It's absolutely bizarre for anyone to suggest the museum would conspire with Brandon Bell to destroy itself.''
Shear said Gendron's critics are hurting the museum's ability to raise money.
``I wish the folks in Martinsville stirring up the fuss would just stand back and look at what they're doing,'' he said.
Shear said he has full confidence in Gendron, whom the museum hired in 1987 to raise funds. Gendron headed a campaign that raised $120,000 in 1988, still the museum's most successful effort to date, he said.
In the face of budget cuts and limited public support, Gendron has managed to lure world-renowned scientists to the museum and expand its outreach programs across the state, Shear said.
Richard Hoffman is curator of recent invertebrates at the museum. Hoffman, honored for his contributions by the museum's foundation, was on the search committee that selected Gendron as director.
He penned a five-page letter this week - an essay describing the history of the museum's ups and downs - that also supports Gendron's abilities.
Near the end of the letter, Hoffman, who favors the Martinsville site for the museum but says he understands economic realities, writes: ``Who, what quantity, what factor, in Martinsville regards the museum so highly as to develop a kind of paranoia about its possible loss? During my six years here on the staff, I have been astonished by the number of local people who: (1) have never heard of the museum; (2) who have heard of it but never visited it; and (3) who have never visited but still think it is a waste of money and should be closed!''
But others, such as George Adams, believe the museum and its growing reputation are important to Martinsville.
Adams, who plans to attend the meeting today, said, ``Nobody wanted the museum when we started it. Now [other localities are] saying, `Hey, that'd be nice to have. Why does Martinsville have it?'''
by CNB