PLEA MADE TO SAVE OLD PEMBROKE BRIDGE

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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 9, 1992                   TAG: 9201090465
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: JUDITH SCHWAB CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: PEARISBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
PLEA MADE TO SAVE OLD PEMBROKE BRIDGE
Along with the usual beginning-of-the-year business, the Giles County Board of Supervisors heard from a Montgomery County resident about why it should save the old Pembroke bridge.
The supervisors also expressed some concern over a county leadership program planned for spring.
Bill Richardson of Blacksburg pleaded the case for restoring the Pembroke bridge instead of replacing it as part of the county's road improvement plan.
Richardson said several organizations want to save the bridge - Citizens Organized for Protection of the Environment, the Newport area's environmental group, various historical leagues and local Ruritan clubs.
Richardson complimented the supervisors on their county comprehensive plan and noted the plan mentioned the importance of tourism and recreation to the economy.
The bridge, he noted, is on postcards in local stores and clearly is a tourism resource.
Dan Brugh, resident engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said the department already has examined alternative sites for a new bridge and found them unacceptable. One site would take a house and another would send traffic through a Pembroke neighborhood.
Renovating the bridge would not improve its capacity, Brugh said. Only a new design could do that. Brugh said a new bridge placed 60 feet from the old one "would not knock out the canoe landings in that area and wouldn't put the canoe livery people out of business."
He said the state could turn the bridge over to the county, along with the $25,000 to $30,000 it would cost for demolition, for its maintenance. Once that money is spent, though, the county would get no more state money for the bridge.
Bobby Compton, the new board chairman, said, "The board in the past hasn't been in the mode to hold onto bridges."
Brugh said the proposal to replace the bridge likely will be presented to the board in the next few months with a contract for a new bridge scheduled for February 1993.
In another matter, Virginia Tech Extension Agent Richard Townsend informed the board that the Extension Service, the Home Makers Council and the Chamber of Commerce have landed a $5,000 W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant for a leadership program for selected residents of the county.
The classes will be held in the spring and the board may nominate county residents to attend, Townsend said.
The board responded with some dismay.
"The last time the board nominated people for class and none were selected and those people [who were selected] were highly critical of us last time," Compton said.
"It was nothing but trouble in the past - the only thing we got out of this thing was a lot of flack," Supervisor Samuel "Ted" Timberlake added.
This is the third year for the program in Giles and the first year for the grant, Diane Rader, secretary at the Giles County Extension Service office, said in a telephone interview later. She said only a half-dozen counties are conducting the program this year.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB