 |
|||||
|
Explore Park could certainly use a white knight. But before its state-appointed overseers hoist the park onto a St. Louis businessman's horse, Roanoke Valley residents and officials should know where he's headed. Publicly available details about Larry Vander Maten's financing, intentions and ability to run a living-history park are scant. The Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority has kept a tight lid on its yearlong negotiations. Roanoke County supervisors and local legislators have been informed, but their knowledge of Vander Maten and his nonprofit Virginia Living Histories appears vague at best. Most troubling are the words of Mike Altizer, the supervisor whose district includes Explore: "I don't have a clue" about Virginia Living Histories' track record. In fact, it has none, having never run a program related to its titular mission. But Altizer trusts Vander Maten all the same because "I think he wants to do something right" and "he comes across to me as a person who will do what he said he would do." For now, the accountant and nursing-home magnate who would sign a 50-year contract to develop and administer Explore Park's 1,100 acres looks more like a walking gray area than a white knight. Before anything is signed, he and his potential neighbors in the valley should become better acquainted. Public coffers provided millions of dollars to create a living, educational, tourist-attracting monument to the region's often inspiring past. Supporters, staff and volunteers have been through much to keep it going - high and then dashed hopes for a larger operation, state abandonment and endless budget worries, such as the 2006 cutoff of the county's $700,000 annual subsidy. Now the public and parties to a potential partnership deserve the fullest possible public hearing on its possible fate under Vander Maten and contractual guarantees that he would properly fulfill its primary mission: living history. If financial viability requires motels, shops or a water park, so be it - but they should advance the mission, not shunt it aside. |
|
