SALEM NAMES COMMITTEE ON FLOOD CONTROL

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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993                   TAG: 9301280376
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SALEM NAMES COMMITTEE ON FLOOD CONTROL
Salem City Council voted Monday to appoint a six-member citizens committee to recommend future flood control measures.
Members were chosen from the list of people who spoke at a special public meeting held last year after the April flood.
Town Manager Randy Smith said city crews had worked to correct many of the drainage problems mentioned at the public meeting.
Smith acknowledged that the city was powerless to correct some problems, particularly flooding along the Roanoke River. "Some things - legally and financially - we'll probably never be able to do," he said.
The citizens committee will review corrective action already taken and recommend possible future steps.
Members of the committee are: Mike Altice, Scott Holland, Joyce Messinger, Jerry Hunter, Sandra Beard and Harold King.
"The biggest problem is still down at the [Roanoke] River," said Mayor Jim Taliaferro, who requested that the citizens committee be appointed.
Smith said the city would try to determine if removal of a sandbar between Apperson Drive and Electric Road would alleviate flooding at Willow River Apartments, where 120 units were damaged in the April flood.
Smith said a more important cause of flooding along that stretch of the river may be the bridge over Electric Road.
City crews do have plans, however, to remove another sandbar at the Moyer Sports Complex.
Councilman Sonny Tarpley, however, noted that "the Good Lord" put those sandbars there for a purpose.
"If we take them out, he's going to put them right back."
In other business, council took the first step toward rezoning a 20-acre parcel on Apperson Drive that the city wants to buy and develop as a site for light industry.
Council has an option to buy the property, which is located next to the American Legion headquarters, for $500,000.
A final vote on the request to rezone the property from residential to light industry is scheduled for Feb. 8.
On another matter, council appointed John David Robbins to fill the unexpired term of Clyde C. Dickens on the Salem Planning Commission. Dickens, whose term expires in July 1995, stepped down for health reasons.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB