Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990 TAG: 9007210292
SECTION: SMITH MOUNTAIN TIMES PAGE: SMT1 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They even got Congress to put up some of the money to build it.
They had not counted on one thing, though - how the folks in Bedford and Franklin counties felt.
And for the past few years, a noisy group of homeowners in Hardy has made it clear they did not want the road cutting through their rural community in Bedford County.
At the same time, Franklin County officials have fretted that because the proposed parkway would go only to the lake's headwaters at Hardy Ford, the scenic drive would dump even more tourist traffic onto the narrow, twisting roads between there and Virginia 122, which are already congested with lake-bound vehicles.
Last week, after two years of mulling over the parkway question, a Virginia congressman may have dealt a death blow to Roanoke's longstanding dream of a scenic road to the lake.
Rep. L.F. Payne, the Nelson County Democrat whose district includes Bedford and Franklin counties, sent word to federal parkway planners: Go ahead and build the Roanoke River Parkway from Vinton to the proposed Explore living-history state park in eastern Roanoke County, if you want.
But don't build the road through my district in Bedford and Franklin counties, Payne said.
Monday, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution endorsing Payne's position. Bedford supervisors are expected to take up a similar resolution next Tuesday.
In theory, Payne may not be able to stop the parkway. The congressional act authorizing the road specifically directs the National Park Service to build a 10-mile parkway. So the National Park Service may be legally required to draw plans for a parkway from Vinton to Hardy Ford, regardless of what the locals think.
In practice, however, the rising cost of the parkway may have halted it at the county line, anyway.
Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, has gone back to Congress to seek more money for the parkway, but it is generally agreed that the first priority must be funds to build the first 2\ -mile link from the Blue Ridge Parkway to Explore. That alone could cost an additional $16.4 million, and one congressional aide familiar with the request warns that it could be a tough fight to win funding.
The leaders of the Bedford County citizens' group, Hardy Against the River Project, hailed Payne's announcement last week as a victory in their three-year fight against the parkway.
But Franklin County officials were not nearly so enthusiastic. They were never opposed to the parkway outright - they just did not think it went far enough.
In fact, when the idea of a riverside parkway from Roanoke to the lake was broached in 1965, Franklin supervisors endorsed a route that would have gone all the way to Penhook.
And when the parkway idea was revived in 1985, parkway boosters in Roanoke spoke of going all the way from Interstate 81 at Dixie Caverns in western Roanoke County to the Booker T. Washington National Monument near Burnt Chimney.
But the National Park Service said only the 10-mile route from Vinton to Hardy Ford fit its requirements for a scenic route.
Since then, Franklin County officials have looked askance at the parkway, trying to decide whether it would worsen traffic on Virginia 634 (Hardy Road) or provide an opportunity to win money to improve it. This week, they finally concluded it would worsen traffic.
"We're going to oppose it all the way," says Supervisor Charles Ellis, who represents the lakeside Gills Creek District and has made roads one of his priorities.
But that still does nothing to improve the bad roads between Roanoke and the lake, County Administrator Rick Huff noted.
Huff estimates it would cost $7 million to widen and straighten the key roads between Hardy Ford, site of the Bay-Roc Marina, and Virginia 122 - the most direct route from Roanoke to the lake.
But there is only $600,000 in the state's six-year plan - $265,000 for fixing 1.7 miles of Hardy Road between Virginia 678 and Virginia 1535, and $300,000 for improving 1.8 miles of Hardy Road between Virginia 1535 and Virginia 804.
There is another $800,000 for building a new bridge across Lynville Creek on Virginia 636.
"It's still a drop in the bucket for what needs to be done," Ellis said.
But road money comes from the state, he pointed out, and "this county just does not have the funding to fix the road to accommodate the traffic."
by CNB