Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993 TAG: 9312010362
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
As outlined by Thomas G. Johnson, a Virginia Tech agricultural economist who analyzed the project, the benefits could be considerable: five new companies, 1,250 direct new jobs, 1,000 jobs created indirectly and increased tax revenue that should more than compensate for the borrowing necessary to develop the park.
But to consider the costs, the Board of Supervisors shut out the public for an hour and a half.
Earlier board discussions - in public - have centered on borrowing either $900,000 to cover only the cost of the land or $3.2 million to fully develop roads and other infrastructure on the site just south of Christiansburg.
Either option combined with voter-approved borrowing for a library expansion and a new health and human services building could result next year in Montgomery`s first property tax increase since 1991.
With one member absent, the supervisors conferred in secret with top county economic development officials under a section of state law that allows closed meetings for discussions about the acquisition and use of public property.
Chairman Ira Long said he didn't know when the board would decide how much money to borrow for the industrial park. But he denied that the public would be left out in the cold until then.
``When we act on it, they won't be out in the cold,`` Long said.
Supervisor Jim Moore was the sole vote against the closed session. He said Tuesday he believes discussions about the purchase of property for public use should be open.
During the closed session, the board told the county's fiscal management director to retain the services of a financial adviser for the bond projects, Long said. The adviser should be working with the county by the end of December.
Montgomery already owns the 141 acres it wants to develop into a high-tech industrial park off Falling Branch Road, beside the new elementary school. Developing such a park became a priority after Montgomery lost its bid to lure a high-tech firm here last year because of the lack of a developed area suitable for such businesses.
The board is now trying to decide how much financing its Industrial Development Authority should pursue through the Farmers Home Administration.
Part of the borrowing will go toward repaying the county for the cost of the land, which it bought earlier this year with cash reserves.
The site parallels Interstate 81 but has no direct access to it. Future highway plans, though, call for an interchange between an extension of the U.S. 460 bypass (better known as Alternate 3A) and I-81, which would be located just northeast of the industrial park site.
The board later publicly discussed the cost of borrowing $4.78 million to expand the Blacksburg branch library and to build a new health and human services building.
The supervisors also talked over the proposed conservation and development amendment to the county's 1990 comprehensive plan. Once called the open-space plan, the matter appeared headed for defeat in October until the supervisors decided it needed more study.
by CNB