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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 3, 1991                   TAG: 9104030393
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

SPEED-LIMIT DECISION DELAYED

Town Council delayed a decision Tuesday on whether to raise the speed limit on a section of Randolph Avenue after hearing conflicting predictions of what the results of raising it might be.

A survey in February by the town's Engineering Department of vehicles on Randolph Avenue, between Sixth Street Northwest and 14th Street, showed 85 percent of them traveling up to 36 miles per hour even though the speed limit is 25.

This resulted in a proposal to raise the limit to 35 miles per hour on Randolph from Fifth Street Northwest to the town limits.

During Tuesday's public comment period, some Randolph Avenue residents thought that raising the speed limit could cut the amount of traffic through their neighborhood.

Others argued that, since drivers are already exceeding the limit, raising it would encourage them to go faster still.

Town Council will consider the matter further before acting.

The governing body named named 12 new members to its grievance panel for indefinite terms and reappointed four others.

The new members are Marvin "Bud" Webb, Ethel Brown, A.C. Sumner, Mason Vaughan Jr., C.R. Conner, Doris Slaughter, Ed Belcher, Alex Rygas, David Wine, Jerry Whitehurst, Richard Slaughter and Frank H. Kelly Jr. Renamed were H.A. Turner Jr., John Bolen, Terry Coble and Marvin P. Long.

In other business, council:

Set a 10 percent annual interest rate for delinquent business license taxes.

Learned from Town Manager Don Holycross that, as of February, the town has gotten 63 percent of its anticipated revenue and spent 57 percent of its budget.

It was anticipated that it would have gotten and spent 67 percent by then, but the income is still 7 percent ahead of last year.

Mayor Gary Hancock commended department heads for keeping down expenses during "hard times."

He also predicted that Pulaski's annual July 4 celebration, which will also be a welcome-home ceremony for Pulaski County residents who served in the Persian Gulf, "is going to be the best ever."

Hancock is a member of the parade's planning committee.

by CNB