By TIM THORNTON
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Archives Reprint

   The National D-Day Memorial Foundation plans to announce an agreement with its major creditors this morning that could bring the foundation closer to an escape from bankruptcy.

    "I think that's the intention," Peter Viemeister, chairman of the foundation's board of directors, said Wednesday afternoon.

    The foundation filed for bankruptcy in November, gaining 120 days to work out a deal with its creditors. On Jan. 24, foundation president William McIntosh predicted that an agreement among the foundation and its largest unsecured creditors was only days away.

    "I think everybody has been crossing every and dotting every i," Viemeister said. "Apparently now nearly all of them are crossed and dotted."

    Byron Dickson, a Roanoke architect who is owed $867,000 for designing the memorial, said no one told him what today's press conference is about, but the foundation invited him.

    "I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing," Dickson said. "I don't know why I'm supposed to be there. It doesn't really suit me to go to this thing but I guess I will."

    Dickson said he signed off on the basic outline of an agreement in December. Cliff Coleman, president of Coleman-Adams Construction Co., didn't return calls Wednesday, but Dickson said the memorial's main contractor was holding up the agreement. The Forest-based company, which is owed $1.67 million, wanted some things clarified, Dickson said.

    Dickson just wants the ordeal to end.

    "I'm worn out," he said. "I just want out. I just hope we can get paid off and go home someday."

    The foundation's debts amount to $3.8 million. In addition to the money owed to Coleman-Adams and Dickson, the foundation owes about $100,000 to 38 smaller creditors. The foundation also owes $750,000 to the Bank of the James, part of a $1.2 million loan. The bank is a secured creditor, so it is unaffected by the bankruptcy.

    Soon after the memorial was dedicated June 6, 2001, the foundation announced that it was $5 million in debt and unable to pay its bills. Federal prosecutors blamed Richard Burrow, the foundation's former president. Prosecutors said Burrow lied to banks and the state of Virginia to get loans to finance the memorial's construction.

    Burrow's trial on fraud charges in U.S. District Court ended in December when the jury hung 7-to-5 for acquittal. The judge declared a mistrial and prosecutors say they haven't decided whether they will retry the case.

    Today's press conference begins at 10 a.m. at the memorial in Bedford.

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