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It was really going to be something. The 1987 master plan for Explore Park included a 10-mile parkway and bike path along the Roanoke River, historically accurate depictions of the lives and culture of European settlers and American Indians, and a collection of animals that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark found on their way to the Pacific Ocean. The park was going to have 55,000 square feet of retail space, more than 300 hotel rooms, an IMAX theater, an amphitheater, a winery and a steam train. That was just phase one. Four years after the park's gates opened, according to the plan, Explore would be attracting 1 million visitors annually. Explore has been open for 10 years now. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 21,494 people paid to visit the park. That's down 1,490 from the year before. "I wish the graphs were reversed," Executive Director Debbie Pitts said at a recent retreat of the park's directors and supporters. "It's very evident that we are seeing a decline in paid admissions." Explore's core is an outdoor living history museum. The park also has a restaurant, picnic shelters, miles of hiking and biking trails, miles of riverbank, and space it rents out for weddings, meetings and the occasional film shoot. "We've built what we've built, and it's good," Pitts said. "But we've got to do more, unless we get the state to start providing some funding." State funding, crucial to that 1987 plan, has evaporated. Over the past three years, the park has received just more than $60,000 from the commonwealth. Though the land and buildings belong to the state and the governor appoints the board that runs it, this fiscal year Explore got no money from the state. Explore was conceived as an economic-development engine that would fuel itself after state, local and federal governments primed it with nearly $78 million over eight years. Private sources and loans would have to supply another $107.5 million over the same period. With that stake, the park was projected to be more than self-sufficient by 1995. It would bear the $163.8 million cost of the second phase of its development. It hasn't worked out that way. Government and private sources have spent just $46 million on Explore's development over the past 17 years. "As funding was cut, guess what, we went from 31 staff down to 13, full time," Pitts said. "Every building here in this park used to have an interpreter with it in the historic area. It's not so any more." The park has reduced its days of operation and cut back on the number of student groups it serves, though the staff is working to reverse that. It's not that demand has fallen among students and teachers. The smaller staff can't serve as many students as the park used to. Roanoke County has become Explore's biggest benefactor, covering more than half of Explore's $900,000 annual budget. The county also provides many maintenance and administrative services. Pitts works for the county's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. But the county's agreement with the park ends in 2006. Supervisor Mike Altizer represents the section of the county that holds much of Explore Park. He is on a committee that has been working on Explore's future for several months. The goal, Altizer said, is "to sort of stimulate or ignite things to get Explore Park on the road to self-sufficiency." They've talked about amphitheaters, a small hotel, craft shops and other possibilities for retail development. "I can't build a retail mall here, but I'd love to," Pitts told the retreat. "I can tell you that the historic area cannot generate enough revenue to support itself," Pitts said in an October interview. "Like it or not, we definitely have to have some other sources of revenue." But not all the news from Explore is bad. The Brugh Tavern restaurant reopened in September under the fourth management team to try to make a go of it in the past six years. A frontier fort similar to one in the 1987 plan was dedicated in July. The park received grants for a riverside greenway and a historic-themed playground. Students from more than 25 school districts across Virginia - plus a few from North Carolina and West Virginia - visited the park last year. Explore eliminated fees for using the park's recreation areas. That's brought more people into the park, something Pitts hopes will eventually lead to more paying customers. Ironically, visitors' donations have exceeded the former income from fees. Admission to the historic area costs $8. It's $6 for seniors; $4.50 for children 3-11. After ending the fiscal year in the black - an uncommon occurrence for Explore - Pitts and her staff have developed plans for summer camps, environmental programs, organized canoe trips and a program to draw tour buses to the park. Pitts is also marketing the park as place to film movies. "We're going hard and heavy after movie production companies," she said. "They pay good money." There's talk of a 15,000-seat amphitheater, a joint project funded by Roanoke and Roanoke County, that may be built on the Bedford County side of the river. The park's directors are moving ahead with plans for a 700-seat amphitheater near the Brugh Tavern that will include four classroom buildings that can double as premium seating. It will host relatively small events, such as the concerts put on by the Roanoke Fiddle and Banjo club this summer. The plan is to build the amphitheater in phases, said Tom Brock, chairman of the River Foundation, the park's private fund-raising arm. The first phase built will be the phase most likely to make money, Brock said. That means the seats and a temporary stage will come first. The classrooms, other buildings and an elaborate, permanent stage with a dancing deck out front will come later. The park has raised about $500,000 for the $1.475 million project. Every conversation about Explore seems to come back to money. Park admissions won't bring in enough, Brock said. "You've got to figure out other ways for people to spend their money on things they want to spend money on," he said. T.A. Carter, a member of the Virginia Recreational Facility Authority, the park's board of directors, agreed that ticket sales won't raise enough money to support Explore. But he thinks the state should be picking up the slack. "That's where the monkey belongs," Carter said. "It belongs on their back." Explore hopes to follow a path blazed by the Frontier Culture Museum near Staunton. Earlier this year, the museum became a state agency, giving it a permanent place in the state budget. Explore, with the help of local legislators and Roanoke County lobbyist Pete Giesen, hopes to get similar status. "The bottom line," Brock said, "is the state of Virginia owns this. The VRFA is appointed by the governor. We get no funding, and it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever." Last fiscal year, admissions generated $92,000, Pitts said. The goal this year is $100,000. So far, admissions revenue is $7,000 behind last year's pace. Pitts said she may come to the board next month to approve cuts in the park's spending plan. |
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