WHAT IS THE BEST DECISION COUNCIL HAS MADE IN RECENT YEARS AND WHAT IS THE

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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 16, 1992                   TAG: 9202160051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
WHAT IS THE BEST DECISION COUNCIL HAS MADE IN RECENT YEARS AND WHAT IS THE
Musser: "The best decision was the one to develop the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology [a city-owned 450-acre industrial park that has attracted half a dozen industries in recent years that have nearly 2,000 jobs]. Our economic development staff has done a good job. But we have more to do in that area, to try to get more high-paying jobs."
"The worst decision was the [Democrats'] vote to name the state office building [across Lee Plaza from the Municipal Building] for former Governor J. Lindsay Almond, a Democrat who once lived in Roanoke, [after Mayor Noel Taylor recommended that it be named for former Gov. John Dalton, a Republican]."
(The Democrats' decision sparked a protest by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups because at one stage in Almond's political career he had opposed the integration of schools. Because of the protest, the four Democrats on council rescinded their decision and joined with Taylor and the Republicans in naming the structure as the Commonwealth of Virginia building. The city owns the building and has leased it to the state to house regional offices for several agencies.)
\ Bowers: "I'd have to say really it's a meat-and-potatoes decision and that would be the flood reduction. The single most indelible event in my mind over two terms on City Council was the disastrous flood of 1985. And Roanoke City Council the next day, led by Mayor Taylor, committed itself to get that under way. Unfortunately though, all the federal government bureaucracy, the funding by the Congress, the Corps of Engineers, the EPA and all those other necessary requirements, we have yet to turn the first spade of dirt. But from my perspective, the city of Roanoke has moved on that project with all deliberate speed. God forbid that there should be a problem with that river again before it's corrected.
"Secondly, I would have to say obviously bringing in that new terminal at the airport was important to the image of our city.
"I still think probably the worst decision I can remember is the art in the atrium at the courthouse. The public paid for that and they even told us then over a period of years it would grow on you. It hasn't grown on me and I'm there every day. I ask people: `Do they like it? Do they understand it?' The answer is usually no to both."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB