HOT SPRINGS -- Roanoke County will be coming up with a contingency plan to keep open hiking and biking trails and fishing and canoeing access at Explore Park in case developer Larry Vander Maten asks for an extension before deciding whether to develop the site.

During a board retreat at The Homestead resort here, just before the opening of the Virginia Association of Counties annual meeting, supervisors gathered for what has become an annual event.

The retreat was noted on their most recent board agenda as a continuation of their Oct. 23 meeting.

Explore Park was one of several updates the board received from staff members in what amounted to an extended work session.

Board Chairman Joseph McNamara asked county Administrator Elmer Hodge if "we have any contingency plan if Vander Maten does not come through? A way to use the passive recreation, like bike trails, canoeing, fishing?"

"We probably shouldn't say anything at this point, because we don't want to jeopardize any plans in progress," Hodge said, noting that he has not talked to the Florida entrepreneur in several weeks.

Vander Maten has an option on a 50-year lease of Explore Park. His 3-year-old agreement calls for him to announce his intentions for exercising that lease by March 15 and to take over management and responsibility for the park by June 30.

At a recent meeting of the Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority, the state agency that controls the 1,100-acre site off the Blue Ridge Parkway, members were told that Vander Maten could seek an extension for exercising the lease.

The authority nevertheless voted last month to close the park Nov. 18, the end of the current season. The living history program will be shut down and the historic buildings boarded up and winterized.

Authority members close to Vander Maten insisted, however, that they believe he has every intention of exercising the lease option and creating an "overnight family vacation destination" at the site, which straddles Roanoke and Bedford counties.

"If he's a year away," McNamara said, "there's all that acreage" to take care of. The county's parks, recreation and tourism department can come up with plans "that won't cost us millions," he said, but could allow residents to continue using the park in the interim.

"I like that idea, too," Hodge said. "If and when there's ever a change" in Vander Maten's plans, Hodge said, the county would want to coordinate with Bedford County and the recreational authority "to do a very quick look at what we all could do working together."

The board also heard reports on plans to study the creation of a property maintenance code to help combat deteriorating neighborhoods, primarily near the boundary with Roanoke.

The county's legislative lobbyist, Eldon James, warned the board that "it's going to be a different world" in Richmond this spring when Democrats take control of the state Senate.

Every committee will get a new chairman, with almost all going to members from Northern Virginia and Tidewater, the state's two most populous areas. Southside and Southwest Virginia "will probably get no more than one committee chairmanship," James said. "If we get two, it will be a happy day."

Board members also heard updates on the county's finances, preparations for a bond sale and proposals to work with the school board to renovate the former Southview Elementary School on Peters Creek Road, most recently used as the county's public safety headquarters.

The board also held a closed session on a prospective business locating in the county, but did not take a vote on that or any other item during the three-hour meeting.

Although final costs for this year's retreat have not yet been calculated, a similar event last year cost about $300, said Teresa Hall, the county's public information officer.

Because the event is held in conjunction with board members' attendance at the association of counties meeting, the only additional expense for the retreat is room rental and some food, she said.

Three board members are scheduled to spend only one night at the hotel for the meeting, while the other two will spend two nights. Conference registration and hotel fees are expected to total less than $3,000, with additional costs for food and travel.