Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991 TAG: 9103130570
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-8 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: WOODSTOCK LENGTH: Medium
Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors agreed to lease the Shenandoah County Farm to the Shenandoah Alliance for Shelter, a Woodstock-based, non-profit group for the homeless. The year-to-year lease contains a five-year option to convert part of the poorhouse into a temporary family shelter, said Dennis M. Morris, chairman of the supervisors' County Farm Committee.
The six indigent residents of the home will continue to live there.
The move ends almost 10 months of debate over whether the County Farm, bequeathed to the county for use as an almshouse by Revolutionary War Gen. Peter Muhlenberg in 1783, should stay open. It is the last county poorhouse in the state and possibly the last one in the country.
A Baptist minister from Texas and his wife had hoped to turn the almshouse into a non-profit girls' home.
"We just more or less scrapped the Texas proposal," Morris said. "The public sentiment was not there for that. The public wanted to keep things within the county if possible."
The supervisors agreed in May to spend $91,661 to keep the 265-acre county farm operating for another year. The spending caused a stir in tight budget times. The financial reprieve gave time to develop proposals for new or expanded uses.
The Shenandoah Alliance for Shelter was formed about a year ago to assist homeless families. The group leases a two-bedroom apartment in the county and rents motel rooms to provide shelter for up to 45 days, Ray Flugel, the group's president said.
"We've just expanded the use," Morris said. "We're turning over the day-to-day operation (of the farm) to the alliance; so they'll take care of the homeless and the indigent.
"It's a compromise - keeping it open - but we're utilizing it to a better extent. The public is very sympathetic toward the county home."
by CNB