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If Virginia's Explore Park ceases to be Explore Park or anything very much like it, the 1,155 acres Explore sits on would revert to the state. Some people think that wouldn't be a bad idea. Rupert Cutler, a former executive director of the park and a current Roanoke City Council member, thinks it's worth considering. So does state Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke. If Roanoke County won't continue to fund the park and Virginia Living Histories - the Missouri nonprofit that wants to lease the park for half a century - can't develop it according to the park's mission, Edwards said, maybe the land should be absorbed into the state park system or the National Park Service. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation did not return calls about that Tuesday, but Phil Noblitt, spokesman for the Blue Ridge Parkway, said making Explore a state park would certainly be compatible with the parkway's mission. North Carolina has one state park, Mount Mitchell State Park, with direct access to the parkway. So it's not unprecedented to link a state park directly to the parkway. But absorbing Explore into the National Park Service system may be a challenge. A 2003 study showed the Blue Ridge Parkway's funding was 40 percent below the cost of operating and maintaining the park. "Things are tight, so to speak," Noblitt said. Noblitt recognizes that things are tight for Roanoke County, which has been spending roughly $700,000 in cash and services at the park for each of the past four years, and for Virginia's park system, too. Virginia's spending on state parks is consistently near the bottom of national rankings, even with a $4.6 million boost from the most recent General Assembly session. But tight budgets don't mean something can't be done. Granger Macfarlane, a former state senator who campaigned against Explore Park's early vision, suggests the General Assembly create a commission to figure out what that should be. With $35 million in public funds already spent, Macfarlane wrote in a recent letter, "there is no need to rush to judgment, much less give this asset away to a stranger." |
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