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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 18, 1992                   TAG: 9203180124
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

THE FEW WHO CAME GAVE OPEN-SPACE PLAN INPUT

Hethwood didn't exist when Nancy Hurst moved to the Blacksburg area 27 years ago with her husband, Charles.

Hurst, of Longshop in Montgomery County, has watched the town grow but is "distressed" that further development could get out of control.

She and her husband attended one of the first round of public workshops Monday for the county's open-space planning project because of "sheer fear that things are growing willy nilly," Nancy Hurst said to the small group there. "I want to see some pattern and order" to future development, she said.

About a dozen people turned up at Prices Fork Elementary School on Prices Fork Road. The group also included Virginia Tech students and county planners working on the project. Similar workshops were held Monday at Blacksburg Community Center and Shawsville High School and Tuesday at Auburn High School and Slusser's Chapel Church of God.

The Prices Fork group suggested areas of Montgomery County that they want to see protected, such as access to the New River, active farmland, hiking trails and historic sites, including McDonald Farm and Whitethorne Plantation.

Nancy Hurst said she was "very disappointed" at the low turnout. The open-space planning workshops will only work if more people get involved, she said.

"This is an important chance [for people] to get their licks in . . . [to] get in there in the planning stages." Complaining about the results after it's done is too late, she said.

The Montgomery County and Blacksburg planning commissions have sponsored meetings and workshops for residents to participate in open-space planning. Their input on areas to preserve and ways to implement the plan will be compiled and presented to the planning commissions and eventually added to the county's 1990 Comprehensive Plan, a plan for growth in the next five to 10 years.

Those who attended the workshop must make an effort to get others involved, Hurst said. The greater the public opinion the more likely the county government will listen, she said.

It was the Hursts' son's remark several years ago that summed up Nancy Hurst's feelings about Montgomery County.

The family was heading to Indiana, where their son, Kenneth, was entering college. He was driving and out of the blue said, "I've had a wonderful growing-up."

"It was so spontaneous, and such a gratifying thing," Hurst said. Kenneth is now in his 30s and lives in California.

But what made Kenneth's growing up so wonderful was the clean air, the freedom of the countryside - "He knew the mountains like the back of his hand" - and friends in a small community, Nancy Hurst said.

"I hate to see this quality of life disappear," she said.

Hurst and her family had moved from Pennsylvania into a turn-of-the-century farmhouse that was on the verge of falling apart. There was no plumbing or heating.

She and her husband, who teaches mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, have 10 1/2 acres that they farm part time. Once Charles Hurst retires, they plan to get more animals, she said. "We've always liked fresh meat and vegetables."

The second round of public workshops are scheduled for:

April 13, 7:30-9:15 p.m. at Shawsville High School, Prices Fork Elementary School and Blacksburg Recreation Center.

April 14, 7:30-9:15 p.m. at Auburn High School and Slusser's Chapel Church of God.