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The sweeping early vision of Explore Park included plenty of shopping, hundreds of hotel rooms and an IMAX theater. The current reality, however, is a much more modest yet welcoming outdoor living-history museum with picnic areas, biking and hiking trails and a restaurant. Though the park has not attained the expectations arising from its master plan nearly two decades ago, it has become a natural gem worthy of preserving through public support. With its interpreters who bring the past to life and its winding trails under canopies of trees, Explore serves as a valuable classroom supplement for students and a recreational haven for thousands of visitors seeking a respite from urban life. Explore has not developed into the primary tourist destination first envisioned - and may never - but that's OK. The park offers attractions that visitors value and appreciate, and it should receive sufficient funding to allow it to continue contributing a desirable public service. Despite Explore's financial troubles outlined in The Roanoke Times over the weekend, its problems are not insurmountable. Should the state continue to renege on its obligation, however, they will be. The public should insist that not happen. In 1987, early supporters envisioned Explore Park as an engine for economic development for the area. Over the years, funding has declined, and such grandiose expectations as 1 million visitors annually and a winery have failed to materialize. Without sufficient resources, Explore has struggled more acutely in recent years as the state has welshed on its financial support. This year, the park received no state money. Fortunately, Roanoke County has come forward to become the park's largest benefactor. But the county alone should not have to bear the financial burden of a park whose land and buildings belong to the state. That duty belongs to the General Assembly, if it will only muster the sense of responsibility to do as it should. |
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