Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990 TAG: 9003212211
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: RURAL RETREAT LENGTH: Medium
The county Board of Supervisors had voted 5-2 a week ago to provide $12,000 for the recreation lake if the town would put up a 20 percent matching share.
The funding was vital if the fishing lake, its pool and other facilities were to be made ready for use this summer. The town and county have had to help fund the lake almost constantly since it was built by the state in the 1960s.
Betty Presgraves, the council member who made the motion to approve Rural Retreat's share, said she did not see why people expected the lake to support itself with three months of income.
"I don't know of a recreation facility in the state of Virginia that supports itself. They are not self-supporting entities," she said.
She included in her motion a request that the county seek an advisory referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot on establishing a countywide recreation authority that could oversee the lake and other recreation projects. The board had discussed doing that, but Supervisor Andy Kegley told council a public hearing on the issue might be held instead.
Georgetta Wright, a member of the lake authority, said state Sen. Daniel Bird Jr., D-Wytheville, had pledged to seek funding from the state next year but the localities would have to keep the lake operation going this year.
"If we shut it down this year and open it a year later, that's just more expense on everybody's part," Wright said. "I feel like we're going to come out and do well with the lake if we have a chance at it . . . If we do have fund drives during the summer, I believe that people will help us with it."
Town Manager Raymond Matney said that approval of the funding would allow the authority to plan what it must do "to get the facility in some kind of condition to open."
In other business, Presgraves reported that council's budget committee would recommend a 1990-91 balanced spending plan with no increase in taxes or water and sewer rates. Matney said the estimated $11,000 in annual revenue from the town's new meals tax helped balance the budget.
Wythe County adopted a meals tax following a referendum in November, which would have been collected in the town if Rural Retreat had not enacted its own, he said. It was just a question of whether the revenue would go to the town or county.
Council also learned that the state has recertified Wythe County and its two towns, Rural Retreat and Wytheville, as being ready to handle new industry. Such community certification must be renewed every three years.
by CNB