Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306100004
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The infamous "Welcome to Shawsville" sign, whose location on a disputed section of U.S. 460 had threatened to lead to battle between the Shawsville and Elliston communities, has been moved.
The sign - originally erected in the median strip of a stretch of highway known to many as the Elliston Straightaway - now sits nearly a mile up the road, near the entrance to Shawsville Elementary School.
Everyone seems happy - more or less.
"It's going to be agreeable to the people in Shawsville," said Clarence Taylor, a Shawsville physician and member of the Ruritan Club, which erected the sign. "And I was given the assurance it would be agreeable to the people in Elliston. We certainly hope it's going to be the happy ending."
For a while, it looked doubtful.
Last summer, just after the Ruritanners plunked down their brand new welcome sign in the middle of disputed territory, there were some very unwelcoming words.
"I don't think it adds to the beauty of the Elliston Straightaway," said Billy Ellis, who was 82 at the time. She also said the sign was in "poor taste."
"I would say just about everybody objects to it being there," added another Elliston resident, Richard Barnett.
In August, parties unknown splashed the sign with paint.
In November, parties unknown hacked it down.
For months then, the stone planter that had held the pretty welcome sign sat empty in the median strip. A symbol, in a way, of a dysfunctional relationship.
Virginia Department of Transportation workers finally moved the planter - in pieces - to its new location last month. Taylor, who had the welcome sign in his garage, hauled it out again, and the Shawsvillians erected the sign again in its new location a week or so ago.
Barnett said it was fine with him.
"I think that's going to be a good location for it," Barnett said. "As far as I'm concerned, I think it's very acceptable. It's a very attractive sign, and I think it adds to the area. I really am sorry that the whole controversy occurred."
Dan Brugh, VDOT's resident engineer in Christiansburg - who fielded a number of angry phone calls after the sign was first erected last summer - said he had no opinion on where the sign should finally rest. The highway department requires only that a sign in a median strip be 25 feet from the roadway and not obstruct lines of vision.
Neither Shawsville nor Elliston is incorporated, nor has any formal boundaries.
"I told them," Brugh said of the welcome sign's new location, "I really didn't care."
by CNB