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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991                   TAG: 9103260183
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLAND                                LENGTH: Short

BLAND BREAKS GROUND ON RENOVATION PROJECTS

Bland County school and governmental officials broke ground Monday on two school renovation projects, even though they have only secured money for one.

"The General Assembly has frozen the literary money and it caught us in the middle," Superintendent Morris Witten told the county Board of Supervisors.

A $1.3 million low-interest loan from the state Literary Fund for renovations at the Rocky Gap school had been approved before the freeze, but a smaller loan for work at the Bland school was delayed and caught in the legislative action.

However, Witten said, localities caught in this bind will be allowed to buy bonds themselves from the Virginia Public School Authority and the only increased interest will come during the first year and amount to about $9,000.

The supervisors voted to go along with this plan, assuring that work will get under way at both schools. When the work is completed, the Bastian, Ceres and Hollybrook elementary schools will close and their pupils will move to the expanded classrooms at Bland and Rocky Gap.

- Southwest bureau

by CNB