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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 12, 1990                   TAG: 9004120384
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER/southwest bureau
DATELINE: GALAX                                 LENGTH: Short

FIRST TRY AT WATER MEETING BETWEEN GALAX, FRIES FAILS

Representatives of the city of Galax and town of Fries could not get together for a joint meeting this week over Galax's plans to pump waste water into the New River.

The two localities disagreed over whether the joint meeting should be open or closed.

Fries officials had come to Monday night's Galax City Council meeting to discuss the issue, but balked at holding the meeting behind closed doors. City Council wanted to hold the meeting in executive session as a legal matter because the case is in court.

Galax is under a state Water Control Board order to update its waste-water disposal and has gotten board approval to discharge its waste water 3 1/2 miles upstream from Fries in the New River.

Fries residents are concerned about the effect the discharge might have on the river, which they had viewed as a future source of drinking water.

A Fries group challenged the project's approval, but the board upheld it. The city asked Circuit Judge Willis Woods to dismiss Fries' court petition challenging the permit, but he ruled March 22 against Galax's dismissal request.

Galax's $6.3 million project is nearing completion.

Terry Grimes, a Roanoke lawyer hired recently by the Fries group, said that further court action might not be needed if the city and town could get together and negotiate their differences. But the first attempt at getting together got nowhere.

by CNB