ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140046
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
For the second time this decade, Montgomery County will seek to condemn private land for a new elementary school, this time in the heart of Riner.
Late Monday, following an hour behind closed doors, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 to start condemnation proceedings on 40 acres for a new elementary behind Auburn High and Middle schools.
The move ended months of private negotiations between the county and the Ethel S. Salmons trust. Her grandson, Ronald Salmons, farms the land, part of a 156-acre tract, today.
Montgomery is offering to pay $109,980 for 39.8 acres, or $2,763 per acre. That's higher than the county's December offer to buy 50 acres for $2,200 an acre, which was refused. And it's nearly twice the land's 1994 assessed fair-market value of $1,490 per acre, according to county real-estate records.
But it's lower than the $6,300 per acre the county paid in 1990 to condemn 21.6 acres for the Falling Branch Elementary School beside Interstate 81 in Christiansburg.
Blacksburg-area supervisors Mary Biggs, Joe Gorman, Ira Long and Jim Moore favored the taking. Henry Jablonski, who represents Riner, Nick Rush of Christiansburg and Joe Stewart of Elliston voted "no."
The board voted without public comment. But Jablonski, the board chairman who's been intimately involved in the details of the project, said Tuesday he had hoped the county could have negotiated a little longer. "It was a real tough issue. That's the reason we had so much [closed-door] discussion on it," Jablonski said.
Rush said he's believed for some time the county should seek to renovate the existing Riner and Bethel schools rather than build a huge, 600-plus pupil replacement for the two. He said he didn't want to see the county "get away from its small neighborhood elementary concept."
The county now will file a petition with the Montgomery County Circuit Court to start the process. Eventually, a panel of landowning condemnation commissioners - the equivalent of a civil-trial jury - will hear evidence from both the county and the landowner. The commissioners then will file a written report with the court saying the amount the county should pay for the land. A circuit judge will review the report before ruling if it is acceptable.
Salmons could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His attorney, Frank Terwillinger of Pulaski, deferred comment until he spoke with Salmons.
After agreeing to seek condemnation, the supervisors voted 5-2 to launch the borrowing process that likely will end up paying for the new school. Rush and Stewart were the "no" votes.
The board agreed to seek to borrow $3.87 million in general obligation bonds through the Virginia Public School Authority this spring, the first of two planned bond sales of up to $9.6 million to pay for the school and related improvements. The second installment of borrowing likely would come in the fall. The board also set a public hearing on the borrowing for March 11.
A general obligation bond is a promise by a government to repay borrowed money and interest through its ability to generate tax revenue.
The Riner school is the first of four building projects the county School Board is pursuing to respond to growth. The School Board and Board of Supervisors also have held closed-door discussions in recent months on acquiring property for a new high school in Shawsville.
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