CLOVERDALE RESIDENTS PUSH MIDDLE SCHOOL

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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993                   TAG: 9303040338
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: N-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
CLOVERDALE RESIDENTS PUSH MIDDLE SCHOOL
Members of the Cloverdale Community Civic League got some assurance Thursday night that a middle school would be built in their neighborhood.
But concerned parents and community members still plied several members of the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors and School Board with questions.
Supervisor Wendy Wingo and Vice Chairman Bill Loope were the only representatives of the five-member Board of Supervisors attending the meeting at Cloverdale Elementary School.
They said they would back appropriating funds to complete the construction of a middle school when needed. They said they know that at least four board members are committed to the project, but declined to name the other two, saying they thought the members should speak for themselves.
School Superintendent Clarence McClure, School Board Chairman Bob Patterson, Vice Chairman Ray Sprinkle and member Sally Eads also attended the meeting.
Emotions seemed strained but remained in check as members of the audience voiced frustrations over delays in building the school for which planning began in 1988.
McClure said two architectural floor plans by the Moseley McClintock Group represent a lot of the time in planning, and that everything is on schedule. The plans were displayed during the meeting.
"If we moved ahead at full steam, we'd still be looking at a construction start date in the fall of '95," he said.
Wingo said it is a given that a 23-acre site on Read Mountain Road, purchased by the county in 1990, will be used for the construction.
But, she said that a financial consultant, not yet hired, will be brought in to find the cheapest method of financing the school's construction. Sprinkle added that the consultant's presence would neither slow nor speed the project.
McClure said financing options include the state's Literary Fund, a subsidized Virginia Public School Authority loan, a straight Virginia school bonds issue or a state general-obligation bonds issue.
Wingo said the consultant also might study funding other state-regulated capital improvements, such as expanding the landfill on Virginia 779 and enlarging the jail in Fincastle.
Supervisors already have granted $100,000 for construction planning. McClure said he expects those funds to last another two to three months. The School Board then plans to request an additional $227,000 to finish the project, he said.
The meeting closed, however, still on a note of uncertainty.
"People don't seem to feel the Board of Supervisors is fully committed to the project," one member of the audience said. "It's too bad that the three members in question are not present to answer."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB