GUARD UNIT CAN'T DO SPRING WORK ON TRAIL

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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992                   TAG: 9201100274
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                  LENGTH: Medium
GUARD UNIT CAN'T DO SPRING WORK ON TRAIL
The 1031st Engineer Company of the Virginia National Guard, which had offered to help build the proposed Huckleberry Trail, will not be able to help with construction this spring.
The unit was denied a request to be restationed in Virginia and has been transferred to Fort Bragg, N.C.
"We're disappointed," said Susan Swain, a member of People Advocating the Huckleberry, a committee working to transform the old railroad line between Blacksburg and Christiansburg into a recreational path. "Hopefully, something can be worked out."
PATH members had hoped that the reserve unit would be able to help them get started on the section of the trail between Warm Hearth Retirement Village and Merrimac Road. The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors had chipped in $3,000 for materials.
Kevin Brooks, a Blacksburg town engineer and a captain with the guard, said the reserve unit would have been able to clear the path, build bridges, install culverts and spread gravel during a training exercise in April.
Swain said the guard may still consider the project for weekends this summer.
"Nothing is official, but maybe the path could be their project at a later date," Swain told PATH members at the Wednesday meeting.
PATH also is having other set backs.
First, there are a few more streams to cross than initially expected, said Walt Yarbrough, a representative from Virginia Tech's chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineering.
Second, local environmentalists are concerned about existing habitat being destroyed if the trail is constructed too wide.
And state rural addition money - used to bring a private road up to state standards for acceptance into the state highway system - will not be available for a portion of the trail that lies within the town limits of Blacksburg.
The unpaved, county-owned right of way along the abandoned railroad line was recommended by the county to be graveled and maintained by the state. But the state cannot take over town property and maintain it.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB