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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990                   TAG: 9004250113
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

RESIDENTS ASK BOARD TO JOIN IN CLEANING UP CLAYTOR LAKE POLLUTION

"This is something that has concerned me for the last several months," said Clarke Cunningham, a real estate broker and developer who lives at the lake. "I've been waiting for someone else to do something but I got tired of waiting."

Cunningham cited reports of heavy-metal pollution in Peak Creek, one of the lake's largest tributaries, and said the resource is being destroyed. He said the group of concerned citizens will meet May 7 at the Newbern Community Center to discuss the problem.

But the pollution in the lake isn't just from industrial waste, Cunningham said.

"It's fertilizer, raw sewage, junk cars, refrigerators, baby diapers and beer bottles - it's all in there," he said. "When I grew up, I was able to have a clean lake to swim in and enjoy. I'm ashamed that when my kids were growing up I didn't do anything to help it. But I'm doing something now."

Cunningham urged the supervisors to join with the citizens in doing something about the lake "before it ends up like the courthouse - gone - and can never be rebuilt again."

In other business, the supervisors decided to hold off passing a resolution allowing the state Department of Corrections to proceed with a study on building a regional jail for Bland, Wythe, Carroll and Pulaski counties.

"I think we need to know more about it before we get involved," said Supervisor Bruce Fariss.

Fariss said the county could lose control of the jail, which most likely would be located in Wythe County.

"We have inmates who benefit the community by their services," Fariss said.

Inmates also work on a farm in the county and grow some of their own food, which helps cut down on jail costs.

"I see this [a regional jail] as being more expensive than our own system," Fariss said. "I want to know what the advantages are."

According to local sheriffs, jails in the four counties stay overcrowded. Pulaski County Sheriff Frank Conner said Wednesday that he doesn't oppose the idea of a regional jail, but would like to find out more about the project before he backs it completely.

There are six regional jails in the state. The one closest to New River Valley is in Rockbridge County, about 100 miles north on Interstate 81.