DON'T WASTE MONEY ON HOTEL PROJECT

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

DATE: MONDAY, January 25, 1993                   TAG: 9301250279
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
DON'T WASTE MONEY ON HOTEL PROJECT
AS A LIFE-LONG resident of Roanoke, I consider the Hotel Roanoke renovation project a disgrace.
Several years ago when the hotel was closed, everything within it was sold at auction. Most of it was auctioned at a fraction of the replacement cost. Now we are told to support (donate to) the renovation project, which promises to restore the hotel to the condition it was originally, along with a few modern improvements. I hope they saved the records as to whom the contents were sold. As advertised in the auction pamphlets years ago, most of the items were originals, as unique as the hotel itself. These cannot be replaced.
I, along with my peers, refuse to contribute one cent to the project. Roanoke has no need for a new convention center, because the existing civic center has problems being filled to capacity. So, why should we want to waste our hard-earned money financing the renovation and building of another destined-to-be-vacant structure? More than likely, it will be closed in a few years, due to insufficient use to finance maintenance, with the contents once again auctioned off.
Wake up, Roanoke! We are a community of people who earn $6 an hour, if we're lucky. We have no need for, nor can we afford, these extravagant wastes of our resources. BETTY STEBER VINTON

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB