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Tonight's the night. The Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority, the board that oversees Virginia's Explore Park, plans to vote this evening on a 50-year lease that would turn the park over to a Missouri nonprofit company. Stan Lanford, a member of the VRFA and the River Foundation, Explore's fund-raising organization, said he expects the lease will be approved. If the board votes for the lease, Virginia Living Histories will commission marketing studies. If those studies don't look promising, VLH president Larry Vander Maten can abandon the project. If the studies are encouraging, the company has five years from the time the lease is signed to begin construction. "It's not set in stone at this point that the investment will take place," Lanford said. "My fondest hope is that it will." Polly Johnson, the VRFA's treasurer, said the lease may be flawed, but the alternative is worse. She would hate to see Explore fail, Johnson said. "Unless something jumps up at me that just sounds terrible, I don't see that we have any alternative," she said. K.C. Bratton, the board's newest member, said he hasn't made up his mind, but "My whole attitude about their project now is positive." Wednesday afternoon, Bratton didn't know about today's vote. "I thought we were going to vote April 19," he said. Bratton wasn't alone. Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority Chairman Fred Anderson sent Tayloe Murphy, the state's secretary of natural resources, a copy of the lease asking for his "comments and approval." Anderson's letter, dated March 14, asked for a response in time for the VRFA's April 19 meeting. "It was our understanding that we had until sometime in April," Gary Waugh, spokesman for the Department of Conservation and Recreation said Wednesday. "We're still in the process of evaluating." The department won't respond before tonight's scheduled vote, Waugh said. "We gave them a chance to respond," Lanford said. "Maybe they will. Maybe they won't." Lanford said he's ready to move ahead without the state's comments if waiting would get in Vander Maten's way. "The quicker he can start, the quicker we'll find out whether or not we actually have this $20 million to invest," Lanford said. |
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