"I love the fact these kids can have hands-on experiences and see things they couldn't see normally," said Kathy Christensen, whose 10-year-old daughter, Candace, was grossed out after touching a slimy stingray. "I'm really looking forward to building the entire thing [a permanent aquarium]."

The Murray woman had heard about the recent wholesale resignations by aquarium board members, but didn't care.

Problem is, prospective donors might - and the aquarium needs to raise $25 million to build a 90,000-square-foot home.

Soliciting handouts in generous but cash-strapped Utah is difficult even when news is good, say area fundraisers. Forget it when times are bad.

"Poison" is how former legislator Dave Jones - a consultant who has worked on 30 fundraising campaigns in Utah - describes the aquarium's recent negative publicity.

"I just don't see what's going to resuscitate that project," he said, noting the aquarium has stirred controversy before, most notably when it fought with Salt Lake City politicians to keep leasing downtown land for the permanent project after the aquarium failed to meet fundraising milestones. "When you have a board resign en masse and with the kind of liability that board members face these days, even with insurance in place, how many people are going to want to jump into that arena?

"There appears to be smoke if not fire."

Some wonder if the best way to douse the embers is for aquarium Executive Director Brent Andersen to step aside.

Salt Lake County Councilman Randy Horiuchi said Andersen, the marine biologist who a decade ago launched the dream of an inland aquarium, may suffer from "Tom Welch syndrome," referring to the man who secured Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Games and was forced to leave before the Olympic caldron was ever lit.

"These are the founders, the guys who spring the idea and take it a certain length," Horiuchi said. "They put their heart and soul into a project and give it life. They are so identified with it that it becomes difficult to separate the person from the goal, and that becomes a concern for others."

But the holdover chairman of the aquarium board - and three new members who were added last week - stand by Andersen and remain confident they can raise millions from private contributors. They have shelved their previous plan to seek a public bond and instead want to raise the $25 million from scratch privately.

The recent bad news, they argue, has been good.

"It's actually, in a way, created exposure to other community leaders that we didn't have," board chairman Brad Carroll said. "Some people are seeing through the story."

The story is the collapse of the aquarium's board. Since January, 10 of 12 board members resigned. They officially cited "irreconcilable differences" within the board, but some privately complained about Andersen's management style.

When a handful of board members met in February - illegally, according to Carroll - to discuss Andersen's contract, the executive director stormed the meeting with his staff and his parents and threatened the aquarium would close and "animals would die." Andersen and the staff questioned the board's commitment to the aquarium and accused some members of improprieties.

Before they resigned, four board members again tried to remove Andersen by not renewing his contract. Andersen and Carroll vowed to expose allegations against those board members, quelling the ouster. Andersen, who makes $65,000 a year, will remain executive director for another three years, Carroll said.

The chairman now is trying to find board members with administrative experience to help build up the aquarium. Later, he will seek ones with political connections and fundraising experience.

Carroll has no qualms about raising money, citing the aquarium's appeal in family-friendly Utah. He touts the projected 200,000 paying visitors to the Sandy space and the 267,000 schoolchildren who have visited the aquarium's outreach vans since 1999. The nonprofit's financial statement shows the aquarium operates in the black, and the Sandy preview exhibit pays for itself.

"We can raise money," said James Marshall, owner of Johanna's Kitchen restaurant and a new board member. "I don't think it will be a problem. . . . I'm not sure why the other guys resigned and I'm not really concerned about it."

But disarray on the board can hurt the aquarium's credibility.

It was the former board's one-time united front that helped persuade Salt Lake County's Debt Review Committee to recommend a public bond for the aquarium last year, though the County Council declined to vote on the proposed ballot measure.

Management is one of the top issues the debt committee weighs, according to Larry Richardson, the panel's chairman and the county's treasurer. "That would include the board and how well they work with the administrative side, which it appears they don't," he said. "For it to have fallen apart like it appears to have is just really amazing."

Former board members maintain the aquarium is a worthy project. Still, they have stepped down in droves. Besides the 10 recent resignations, 26 others have left since 1998, according to the organization's Internal Revenue Service filings and county Zoo, Arts and Parks tax applications.

In some cases, once they have left, they have taken their checkbooks with them.

The most notable exit was by former Congresswoman Enid Greene. Her family donated $150,000 to the aquarium, but she began to criticize Andersen's management of finances and personnel, saying he wasn't professional. She resigned and says her family won't give again until she verifies the project is viable.

"I leave it to other private donors to make their own mind up as to what they would do. We're not giving," she said. "It would be a wonderful project for our community. [Executive Director] Brent [Andersen's] had his chance. I regret to say this: I unfortunately believe it will not happen until somebody else takes it over. [If] you've alienated enough people in the community, you need to start fresh."

When someone of Greene's clout speaks out - she's the chairwoman of the Utah Republican Party - donations will dry up, predicted Jones, the fundraising consultant.

"At this point, if you went to the major donors in this town, in this state and asked them, 'Would you consider making a gift of $5 million, $10 million' . . . I don't think they would get serious consideration for it," he said.

Adam Blundell and the 200-member Wasatch Marine Aquarium Society have been alienated by Andersen. The society once helped build aquarium exhibits and is a natural constituency for the attraction. But Blundell, the past president, said the group was turned off by Andersen.

"His plan for the Living Planet is awesome," Blundell said. "Unfortunately, he's just not very good at running it."

Troy Takach, who left the aquarium board in 2005 after donating money for the octopus exhibit, said Andersen may need to let others, including board members, take control. "People that are strong that start things from nothing have passionate ideas about the way they think it should end up. As stuff grows, sometimes the creators are maybe not the ones to carry it forward."

Takach is hesitant to give again. When leadership is weak, he said, "you can get away with a benevolent dictatorship."

But former board member Tom Markuse calls Andersen and his employees the "heart and soul" of the aquarium. Markuse, who resigned last summer, recalled employees spending nights preparing the Sandy exhibit space.

"One measure of success is how many people go there and return. [Andersen's] grown it," he said. "Educators readily see the value in the aquarium. All these other things that have been in the paper, they sadden me."

Andersen's current staffers have lined up to defend him as well.

"Brent's a visionary," aquarist Jay Llewellyn said. "He's made it clear time and time again if we are not behind him, he will gladly step down. The staff have said, 'No, we want you.' He would be gone by now if the aquarium felt that was in the best interest."

Sandy City Councilman Bryant Anderson, who persuaded the aquarium to move the preview exhibit from The Gateway to the suburb, is happy with the results - attendance is up 24 percent from last year - and hopes his city lands the permanent facility.

The recent headlines "could have some impact" on fundraising, he acknowledged. To lessen the blow, the aquarium must "make sure that they're open and they're able to demonstrate their ability to run a good, tight ship."