By BOB STUART bstuart@newsvirginian.com (540) 932-356 • August 18, 2018

WAYNESBORO — The board of the Virginia Museum of Natural History unanimously voted Saturday to build the Waynesboro campus on a downtown municipal lot across from the Waynesboro Fire Department and next to Constitution Park.

The lot is at the intersection of West Main Street and Arch Avenue.

Natural History Museum Executive Director Joe Keiper said Saturday’s vote is one more step toward a campus of the Martinsville-based museum getting built in Waynesboro.

“There are lots of questions and hurdles, but it really starts to look more real,” Keiper said.

Waynesboro Mayor Terry Short said Waynesboro City Council and the city of Waynesboro “are grateful for the board’s confidence in this new campus.” Short said, when complete, the museum “would be an asset not just for Waynesboro but for all of Virginia.”

Saturday’s vote came less than a week after Waynesboro City Council reaffirmed its support for the project. The council last Monday passed a resolution providing $1 million in incentives for the museum to come to the city. The promise includes real estate, financial contributions and in-kind support for the project, which carries a total price tag of $10 million.

When built, the museum would focus on the natural history of the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge region.

Also Saturday, Keiper said the museum board was told that nine proposals have been received from architecture and design firms for the Waynesboro campus. Keiper said a Waynesboro advocacy committee would soon start interviews, and is expected to choose a firm by September.

Plans call for a 25,000-square-foot Waynesboro campus. But Keiper said there are questions about whether that design would include one level, two or three.

He hopes to have preliminary drawings of the design ready for the 2019 General Assembly.

“The real key is to ask for [construction funding] in the biennial budget,” Keiper said.

The cost of construction is estimated at $7 million. Estimates are that $2 million in corporate and private donations will also be needed.

The project received a boost earlier this year when a Virginia state budget amendment included $250,000 for planning and design of the Waynesboro campus. The amendment was offered by Sen. Emmett Hanger and Del. Dickie Bell.