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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 12, 1990                   TAG: 9005140198
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUPPORTERS OF CONSOLIDATION INACATIVE

I AM CONCERNED at the apparent lack of activity by consolidation proponents. The newspaper provides a lot of coverage of organized activity in the county against consolidation. But I do not perceive, especially in the county, significant organized activity needed to educate a large part of the population about the watershed significance that consolidation will have for the Roanoke community going into the 21st century.

If we allow the defeat of this issue, our children will ask in 25 years, again, how we let the jobs and growth move to -------. (Fill in the name of the next economic growth metropolis: Charlotte, Richmond, Greensboro, et al.) If we want the best - schools, lifestyle, culture, or whatever - the community must make the difficult decisions that will bring the growth and progress that we need to pay for it. Those decisions must be informed and supported by facts, rather than rhetoric and fear.

There should be a widespread effort to make the facts known. The effort should begin now. August is too late. There are a lot of strong feelings. There are a lot of fears and misconceptions that ought to be discussed. They ought to be confronted directly and openly, as soon as possible.

As a resident of the county, I am disappointed in county officials who negotiated the consolidation agreement and now have spoken out against it. As a property owner and taxpayer in the city, I am disappointed in the city officials who have not done more to make the facts known in order to dispel the critics. As a subscriber to the only paper with significant distribution, I am disappointed that, in the absence of competition, you have emphasized the negatives and the controversial, more than positives.

\ RICHARD KURSHAN\ ROANOKE

by CNB