Ark park moves ahead with or without state help

WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. – In a clearing within the wooded, hilly countryside of Grant County, two large cranes swoop over a sprawling concrete skeleton of what the developers say will become an authentic replica of Noah’s Ark.

About 35 workers move about the structure and nearby stacks of long wooden beams, timber of all sorts, and the first formed wooden ribs of a massive ship.

Construction of Ark Encounter, the Noah’s Ark theme park of the Christian ministry Answers in Genesis, is well underway — even as U.S. District Court considers the question of whether the religious attraction is eligible for $18 million in state tax incentives.

Mike Zovath, chief action officer and co-founder of AiG, said during a recent tour of the site that the ark will be built and AiG hopes to open the park next summer regardless.

“The tax incentives, the tax rebates, have nothing to do with construction,” Zovath said. “... We didn’t even include that in our budget or bond offering. That would all be used for future expansion.”

State officials — including Gov. Steve Beshear — initially embraced the project when proposed in 2010 as an attraction that would lure thousands of tourists to the state. But last December state Tourism, Arts and Heritage Secretary Bob Stewart rejected AiG’s application for the tax rebates because “the project has evolved from a tourism attraction to an extension of AiG’s ministry.”

To award tax incentives, Stewart said in a letter to AiG, would violate separation of church and state provisions of the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions.

AiG responded by filing suit in U.S. District Court against Stewart and Beshear claiming that the state government’s denial of its participation in the tourism incentive program amounted to unconstitutional discrimination against its religious beliefs. The case is pending.

Gil Lawson, spokesman for the tourism cabinet, said Stewart declined to comment on AiG’s decision to press ahead with construction.

Critics of any taxpayer support for the religious project said they have no objection to work proceeding with private funding. “As long as they’re not doing it with state support, that’s their own business,” said Daniel Phelps, president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society.

Rob Boston, communications director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has asked to intervene in the lawsuit, had a similar reaction. But Boston said, “The fact that Ark Encounter has been able to take this process so far indicates they don’t need any taxpayer support.”

Answers in Genesis, which opened its Creation Museum in Boone County in 2007 without the help of any state government incentives, embraces a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis and a belief that the Earth is only 6,000 years old — a view that runs counter to those of scientists.

Zovath said construction of the ark began last August after the state gave preliminary approval for the tax incentives it later denied.

Under the oversight of construction manager Troyer Group One Source, of Mishawaka, Ind., about 20 percent of the work on the $84 million project is already finished, Zovath said.

Workers are nearly ready to begin assembling the wooden ark atop the one-story concrete base and between support towers that are nearly complete. Zovath said that upon completion, the ark will be “the largest timber-frame structure in the world” — 510 feet long and 81 feet high.

The ark will need 3.2 million board feet of wood, he said. “If you laid it end-to-end it would get you from here to Philadelphia.”

Last week, AiG opened the construction site for public viewing from a cabin and observation deck just outside the hard hat area. It is charging $20 per vehicle ($10 for Creation Museum members) for the viewing opportunity.

Zovath said visitors are being charged to cover the cost of building and staffing the observation site. And he acknowledged few visitors have arrived so far but said traffic will pick up during the summer months, particularly when the timber structure begins to go up.

Mike and Sheri Blalock, of Dallas, stopped by the site this week during a visit with relatives in Northern Kentucky who work at the Creation Museum. “We read about it in the Bible all the time,” Mike Blalock said. “So I wanted to take this in, and even though that’s just the base out there right now, you can begin to see just how big it really is. I think it’s going to be first class.”

To skeptics who say the ark park would never be built, or will not be completed, without state tax incentives, Zovath said, “Pay your $20 and come out and see how far we’ve come so far. We just don’t need the incentives to get this thing built at this point in time.”

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That doesn’t mean, he stressed, that AiG isn’t still pressing in court to get those incentives — which under the state program would be up to $18 million in rebates of a portion of the sales tax the park collected during the first 10 years after it is open.

Zovath said AiG decided to acquire property for the project in Kentucky only after several encouraging actions by the state, including Beshear’s comments in support at a December 2010 news conference.

“That incentive deal is the right of any attraction that meets all of the standards that the state put forward,” Zovath said. “And the integrity of the state is at issue here. We looked around at Indiana and Ohio. And the incentives for bringing the tourist attraction to Kentucky were the reason we decided on this particular site.”

But Stewart said in his letter of last December that postings on AiG’s website and correspondence with the state showed that the original project had changed from a secular tourist attraction to become one that would advance religion as well as discriminate in hiring based on religion.

“Even though the Commonwealth cannot support this new ministry with Tourism Development incentives, we acknowledge and appreciate (AiG’s) plans to develop this project in Kentucky, regardless of the availability of incentives,” Stewart wrote.

Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136. Follow him on Twitter at @TomLoftus_CJ.