Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 12, 1993 TAG: 9301120309
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GAINSBORO VOTES TO KEEP UP FIGHT
Gainsboro residents vowed Monday night to continue their fight to block the realignment and widening of Wells Avenue.And they want Roanoke City Council to hold another public hearing on the plan.
They believe that some council members made up their minds on the project before last month's meeting, where it was approved unanimously.
Evelyn Bethel, president of the Historic Gainsboro District Inc., said the Dec. 16 meeting was a "mis-hearing and mock hearing" because at least one council member said before the meeting he was going to support the plan.
Bethel said members of the audience were not allowed to ask city officials questions about the project.
She said council members asked no questions of either city officials or speakers. She suggested there were no questions because the hearing was just a legal formality with a prearranged script.
The Rev. Charles Green told council Monday that the residents won't go quietly away now that it has approved the road plan.
"We won't give up. You will see us again and again until this battle is over," said Green, president of the Roanoke chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The residents will go to court if necessary to try to halt the project, Green said.
Helen Davis, another Gainsboro resident, said that council members sat through last month's hearing with "frozen faces" and "voted quickly" after the speakers were finished.
"It indicated that your decision had already been made," Davis said.
During Monday night's council meeting, Bethel, Green and Davis each read a series of written questions and asked council for answers.
Davis asked why city officials held a news conference in a church instead of the Municipal Building when it announced that some groups had accepted the plan. She wanted to know if other news conferences had been held in churches in the past three years.
Davis asked if this was a mixing of government and religion.
Council did not respond to any of the questions.
Mayor David Bowers told Bethel that the decision has been made on the Wells Avenue project. Normally, council doesn't rehear issues after it has acted on them, he said.
If council is going to begin rehearing issues, Bowers said, he could allow opponents of closing part of the Hunter Viaduct to come back again and plead their case.
Bowers said he agreed to hear Bethel and the other speakers out of courtesy.