Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991 TAG: 9103080494
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV13 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEVE KARK CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
The board made its decision after Dave Rundgren, director of the New River Planning District Commission, reviewed aspects of the plan before an audience that included members of the county.
Also, the plan urges continuing the county's study of potential industrial sites to ensure that such sites are in areas where necessary services, such as water and sewers, can be provided and that such sites do not interfere with the quality of the county's natural environment.
The plan also allows for improved public services to county residents. Chief among these is the countywide project to provide potable water to communities previously plagued with water ruled as unfit to drink by State Health Department standards.
In addition, the plan promotes providing "fair and open" housing for county residents and suggests incentives to developers willing to build housing for residents of low to moderate incomes.
Finally, road improvements in the plan include extending the four-lane roadway on Virginia 100 to the Pulaski County line and widening U.S. 460 and Virginia 100.
In related matters, the board heard two requests for funding toward projects that require more immediate attention than the comprehensive county plan would provide.
Pembroke Councilman Lester Tickle asked that the county provide $85,000 toward a $1.25 million block grant that, among other things, would improve 1.1 miles of Cascade Drive from U.S. 460 toward the Cascades Recreation area.
According to Tickle, somewhere around 1,000 cars a day use the road during the peak season in the summer. Tickle pointed out that the current 14-foot right of way on the roadway isn't adequate, and he said that the money, in addition to the block grant funds, would be used to expand the right of way to a safer 20-foot width.
Pembroke has obtained a $1.25 million community development block grant for improvements to the town. Of that, $700,000 has been budgeted toward building a sewage treatment plant that could later be linked to the countywide system. Also, $78,000 has been allowed for housing rehabilitation.
The remaining $325,000 isn't enough, said Tickle, to finish the roadway improvement, which estimates say will cost $410,000.
Supervisors Chairman Richard Williams said that "all this has to tie together" with the county's comprehensive plan. He suggested that Pembroke submit a written request to the board so that it can be further examined in light of this connection.
In another matter, Glen Lyn Mayor Howard Spencer stepped before the supervisors with a blackened water filter to demonstrate his community's desperate need for funding to improve its water situation.
Spencer said that the filter had been used only five days. "Any time you clean a filter out once a week and it comes out looking like that," he said, "you've got a problem."
Spencer came before the board Tuesday night to request $22,000, which he said would be used as "seed money" toward applying for a $634,000 block grant to solve the problem. Glen Lyn Town Council has already given $28,000 for the project.
Spencer said that the money would be used for testing alternate wells, installing a 22,000-gallon water tank and linking the town's current water service, which is divided by the New River into eastern and western districts.
Another factor in the request, he said, is that Fairchild Corp in Glen Lyn has expressed concern over the current water supply because there isn't enough for the company to fight a fire on its property, causing its insurance rates to go up.
"That company has employed 140 men, and I would hate for this to be a factor in Fairchild going back to Beckley," he said.
Again, the board recommended that the request be made in writing so that it might, like the Pembroke situation, be considered in light of the overall budget for the countywide plan.
by CNB