Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 12, 1993 TAG: 9304120033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE NAYSAYER
Bishop Richard Bansemer of the Lutheran Church's Virginia Synod headquarters in Salem was taken aback recently by a small boy's retort at a Communion service at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Wytheville.The child came galloping up to the Communion rail with his mother. Following custom, Bansemer placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and said, "You are a beloved child of God."
"No," the boy replied, "I'm a horse!"
Congressional pay-daze
During a recent meeting with Salem's School Board and City Council, 6th District Rep. Bob Goodlatte proposed his solution for balancing the federal budget.
Require Congress to draw its paychecks from a federal budget surplus, he said, and watch how quickly things would change.
"That's not a serious proposal," he added. Wasted wood
Lorna Baker grew up in a wood-heated house in Nevada. She knows what it's like to be cold.
So it hurts her to see her and her husband's general contracting business, D. Baker & Co., dump wood every week at the Roanoke County landfill.
"It's like throwing food out," she said. "I know there are children out there who spend their winters cold."
Much of what's dumped isn't treated or painted wood - stuff that shouldn't go in wood stoves - but good, clean burnable lumber.
She's looking for somebody to help her find a place to store it and a way to give it away. So far, government and poverty agencies have said they have nowhere to put it.
Her office phone is 989-6082.
Taking bite out of hunger
Subway Sandwich Shops in the Roanoke Valley are participating in a nationwide effort to collect food for community food banks.
The Subway Food for Food '93 program in the Roanoke area will benefit the\ Second Harvest Food Bank.
The program works like this: On Sunday, local residents are asked to bring canned goods to their local Subway sandwich shop between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Each person making a contribution will receive a free 6-inch sandwich.
The canned goods will benefit more than 37,500 people in the community who count on the food bank to supplement their diets, said\ Pam Irvine, director of the Second Harvest Food Bank.
Subway is conducting the campaign at its 7,000 outlets in the United States and Canada.
Beautifying byways
It's a new role for highway engineers who have been criticized for giving too much attention to asphalt at the expense of the scenery, green space and landscaping of roads.
"Now we have money to do some things that people say that we should have been doing all along," said\ Bob Cassada, a programs engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Cassada was in Roanoke recently to explain a new federal transportation program that requires states to use at least 10 percent of their transportation funds for scenic easements, historic preservation, bicycle and pedestrian paths, landscaping or other beautification features.
For Virginia, that comes out to $7.5 million a year for the next five years.
Local governments, other public agencies and private organizations will have to compete for the money.
Traffic Engineer Bob Bengtson said Roanoke will accept applications for projects until May 14. City officials and City Council will review the applications before they are submitted to the Department of Transportation.