911 INSTALLATION MAY BE END OF 1994, SHERIFF SAYS

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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993                   TAG: 9304080175
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEVE KARK CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: PEARISBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
911 INSTALLATION MAY BE END OF 1994, SHERIFF SAYS
Sheriff Larry Falls, chairman of the county's 911 committee, told the Giles County supervisors this week that, if the job is to be done right, it will take at least until December 1994 before the initial stages of the system are in place.
Falls told the supervisors that it will take roughly 12 to 15 months for C&P Telephone to prepare a database of county phone numbers. And it will take several more months on top of that for the county to determine where the 911 dispatch office will be located, he said.
There has been some discussion on whether it should be located in the current county building or in the proposed Health Department building, which is to be built next door.
Setting up the call system will be the first priority, he said. The 911 committee has determined that it will be cheaper in the long run to get that part of the system running before beginning the process of identifying and naming all the roads in the county.
That stage in the process often takes the most time, Falls said, and the committee wanted to get it up and running as soon as possible.
Falls said he had high hopes for the system when completed: "Once we get this into effect, we want it to be one of the very best in the country."
The supervisors also held two public hearings on zoning matters. In the first, two county landowners asked for special exceptions to the zoning law so they might be allowed to add a mobile home on each of their lots. In the districts where the lots are located, the county's zoning law permits only one residential structure per lot.
In both cases, the landowners requested the special exception so they could move an ailing parent into a mobile home, which would be installed next to their own home.
In the second hearing, Dave Rundgren, executive director of the New River Valley Planning District Commission, asked that the supervisors approve a number of changes that had been recommended by the county attorney.
None of the changes will substantially affect the intent of the zoning law, he added, but were necessary to legally clarify various parts of the ordinance.
The supervisors have 30 days before they have to make their decision.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB