ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 5, 1996 TAG: 9602050003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
YES, a new school is needed.
My impression of Don Terp's Jan. 26 letter to the editor (``A new high school isn't needed'') is that he knows nothing about Southwest Roanoke County's school needs. He states that Cave Spring High School is adequate. What's adequate when it comes to our children's education? He's more concerned about his new tax assessment than our children's education.
Has he ever visited the schools to determine what is needed? Our ninth-graders need to be in a high school setting like other high schools in Roanoke County. Terp needs to visit Cave Spring Junior High and see the trailers in use due to overcrowding or go to Cave Spring High School and see the overcrowded conditions. The schools are outdated and in need of repairs.
Terp says to wait five years. OK, but what are the costs of waiting? Increased construction costs, more overcrowding of classrooms, and less learning by students with overworked teachers and understaffed classes. By all means, let's wait.
For him to think that one reason for a new school is to make it easier to sell real estate is ridiculous. Yes, Southwest County is growing with several new subdivisions, which will increase overcrowding of the schools. With new subdivisions, there will be increased tax revenue, so, since it's a major concern of his, his taxes may not increase .
Yes, I'm an emotional citizen in Southwest County who sees a need for a new school. As far as putting this burden on other county citizens, Terp needs to check out the percentage of the population of Southwest County in relation to the percentage of taxes being paid. He'll see that we'll be paying our fair share, if not more.
I will vote yes on April 2, along with other emotional but responsible county citizens.
WAYNE NEWMAN
BENT MOUNTAIN
Contest's winners - and whiners
I LOOK forward to my daily dose of The Roanoke Times. However, I especially anticipated each Extra section page during Extra's short-story contest (``A Christmas Memory'') at Christmas time. Each day I could hardly wait to get home from work and settle by my Christmas tree to read a new holiday tale.
Imagine my dismay when Geraldine D. Phillips (Jan. 16 letter to the editor, "Winners had an unfair advantage") rebuked your judges and downplayed the 800 entrants' ability to tell a good story. Her letter reads as if she's one of these entrants. She implies that no writer has a chance to win against creative writers and English and drama teachers. Baloney. Anybody who can spin memories into words, with a beginning, middle and ending and a few good details woven in, has a story to share. My second-graders at Fallon Park Elementary School do it daily. I have no doubt others can, too.
We can't all win. With 800 stories and only a week's worth of winners, many great stories won't find their way to publication. Sounds to me like her words ring not of good tidings and fond holiday memories, but of post-Christmas sour grapes.
WENDI G. RICHERT
ROANOKE
The snow job's bouquets and barbs
IN RESPONSE to Jim Maske (``City's excuses piled up with the snow''), the former Pennsylvanian who complained about Roanoke city and Roanoke County efforts to clean up after the snowfall, and to Ed Nicholson (``The city deserves an A+ for effort''), who gave the city an A+ for the effort made during the cleanup. (Both letters to the editor were published Jan. 19.)
Nicholson must have been one of the lucky ones whose street was plowed fairly early in the week. Mine, among others, wasn't touched until that Friday! By then, the snow had been packed down by people who had to go to work, the grocery store, wherever. The worst thing about it is that my street is one of the entrance-exit streets for a rescue-squad facility.
An A+? I think not! But neither do the valley governments deserve an F nor the scathing diatribe of Maske.
Reared in a Southwest Virginia military family, I spent several years in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey area, and am very aware of the snowstorms he referred to. I came to Roanoke from a rural back road of Wythe County where being snowed in for three or four days isn't unusual. And yes, Northern states generally are better-equipped to handle the winter weather. But we don't usually get the kind of storm that hit us recently.
Maske should tell those of us who love this valley why he moved here. And if he doesn't like it here, why does he stay? If he doesn't like something, he needs to find out what he can do to change it. If he can't find it in himself to try to change things, then he should move back north. We don't need people here who don't like it enough to try and make things better!
STEPHANIE ROWE
ROANOKE
Stand by your hockey team
IN RESPONSE to your Jan. 17 article, ```Roundhouse' no funhouse for Anzalone'':
As a new fan of the Roanoke Express hockey club, I have to be as ``blunt'' as coach Frank Anzalone by saying that most of the blame for the ``bad luck'' would lay on the fans' shoulders. They have this love-hate thing in full swing. How about rooting for the team instead of booing, and showing respect instead of bad-mouthing?
To one ``fan'' who said he could do a better job than the players, by all means, put your money where your mouth is. Get on the ice, get slammed into the glass, and get hit by a puck or stick so that I can razz and laugh at you. If you say you're a fan, then act like one. Be for your team, in good and bad times, instead of on again, off again.
As for the Express players and coach Anzalone, great job. I'm proud. Keep up the good work, and know that you have at least five die-hard fans in my house who love you and respect your hard work. So, win or lose, go Express!
WENDY OVERSTREET
VINTON
Partisan politics hampers leadership
REGARDING Dan Casey's Jan. 14 article, "Voters: apathetic or happy?'':
One should conclude that Roanoke city voters must simply be apathetic about their participation in municipal government. It seems the only time city residents ever attend City Council meetings or voice their concerns about the direction of the city is when there's some kind of perceived crisis at hand, such as the council's controversial two-for-one pension plan, the city's perceived takeover of a public utility or the timeliness of snow removal.
In Casey's article, City Manager Bob Herbert says that low attendance at meetings must mean that citizens are happy with city government. But could it be that citizens are tired of all the political posturing and partisan politics that occur at council meetings? Could it be that if you aren't part of a special-interest group promising lots of votes at the next election, your concerns simply aren't important enough to be heard?
It's time for Mayor David Bowers and City Council members to put the citizens of the city first and drop their own political agendas. Partisan politics should play no part in municipal government. I wonder if our mayor would be the first to stop his blatant political posturing and actually do something good for Roanoke. Probably not. After all, we must remember that most politicians aren't leaders - because sometimes good leaders aren't popular, and lack of popularity wouldn't win the next election, which is, after all, a politician's only true goal. I guess it's too much for us to ask that our mayor stop being the consummate politician and try to just be a leader.
RONALD B. MULLINS
ROANOKE
No protest this time from Gov. Allen?
IT IS COMFORTING to note that Gov. George Allen hasn't protested President Clinton's decision (and the meddling of the federal government) to grant disaster relief to Virginia in the aftermath of the recent storms. It's noteworthy that Allen doesn't have the grace to acknowledge this gift.
Are the Virginia Department of Transportation and the state recipients of welfare? The feds should require that VDOT doesn't have a "live-in" or childern born out of wedlock, and most importantly, that it retrain itself. Definitely, Allen should be retrained - by Miss Manners.
RUFUS MORISON
GLADE SPRING
LENGTH: Long : 147 linesby CNB