
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995                   TAG: 9503270059
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AVALANCHE PLAYS WAITING GAME

Kelvin Bowles, the Salem Avalanche owner, is leaning toward making a decision about where the team will open its home Carolina League season early in the week of April 3.

Bowles and his general manager, Sam Lazzaro, met Thursday with Salem mayor Jim Taliaferro for an update on the construction schedule for the new baseball field.

``Nothing definitive was said about whether it would be ready,'' Bowles said. ``I told the mayor that pretty soon, I was going to have to make decision about where we were going to open.

``I expect we'll meet again next week some time.''

Although Bowles would dearly love to open at the new stadium, he knows that that might not be possible. Contingency plans would involve appealing to the Carolina League, the parent Colorado Rockies, and major-league baseball to be allowed to open at Municipal Field, the former home of the Salem team.

Officials from the city and the Avalanche have been saying all along that safety is the primary issue governing whether the new facility will open on time. Lazzaro said Friday that the new field still lacks a backstop, railings, fences and electricity. The giant new electronic scoreboard is still in sections in an Atlanta warehouse waiting to be shipped.

``I talked to the scoreboard people [Friday],'' Lazzaro said. ``They wanted to know when we were going to have the electricity on so they could set the scoreboard up and get it adjusted. I couldn't tell them anything. Part of the electrical work was depending on one of the last construction bids.''

Lazzaro said he was told shipping the scoreboard would probably take three days.

Bowles and Lazzaro know that even if the Avalanche can open in the new ballpark, the facility won't be completely done. The big questions are securing the occupancy permit from the city, assuming one is forthcoming, and the degree of incompletion Bowles will tolerate before he gives the go-ahead for the team to move in.

``If there are construction materials all around, chunks of concrete - I don't want people to get a first impression of it that way,'' Bowles said. ``I'm not going to mislead the public. We'll let people know something as soon as we know something.''

by CNB