Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993 TAG: 9301210192
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
MANAGER, COUNCIL SAY FAREWELL
Don Holycross looked out of place at the speaker's stand where Pulaski Town Council gets comments from the public.Since 1990, Holycross had addressed the governing body from the town manager's seat. But this time he was saying goodbye at his last council meeting before leaving to become the first manager for Atlantic Beach, N.C.
He was responding to a resolution honoring him that council adopted Tuesday night.
Holycross said he will miss the friends he and his family have made in Pulaski, just as he misses those he made in the other managerial positions where he has worked. But he planned to keep in touch and follow Pulaski's progress in the years ahead.
Holycross and Rob Lyons, assistant to the town manager, have reviewed the 142 applications from people interesting in becoming Pulaski's new manager. They came up with a list of 15 to 20 for council's Personnel Committee to consider.
The committee will hold its first meeting Monday to look at the resumes of the prospects. Lyons, who is not among the applicants, will be acting manager until a successor to Holycross is hired.
An end-of-year audit showed Pulaski finishing 1992 with a cash balance of $564,000, not counting $94,000 carried over for a bridge project on Virginia 99, out of a total budget of about $4 million.
That was not the case when Holycross became manager. The town was facing a deficit situation then.
Town employees also managed to save about $200,000 last year by keeping expenses at 95 percent of how they were budgeted.
The financial stability has improved, but Holycross urged council to keep it as a priority and even increase reserves a little more.
In the resolution, council said that Holycross "in the spirit of his idol, Thomas Jefferson," believed that the role of government was to serve the people and had demonstrated his commitment to that ideal every day on the job.
The resolution also noted that Holycross was an avid hiker who walked more than 500 miles on the Appalachian Trail during his time in Virginia "and enjoyed every minute of it."