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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 28, 1993                   TAG: 9304280349
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

THE NAME'S OFFICIAL: IT'S `OLD COURTHOUSE'

The Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Monday night to give the 97-year-old gray stone building that name, after deadlocking 2-2 on it a few minutes earlier.

"I don't care what you name it, that's what people are going to call it," Supervisor Bruce Fariss maintained in pushing for the name.

The Pulaski Chapter of the New River Historical Society thought that way, too. In a letter, it proposed that "Old Courthouse" be added to names being considered for the renovated stone courthouse gutted by fire in December 1989 and since rebuilt and renovated.

Community Relations Coordinator Terri Gregory had gathered a list of more than 40 names submitted by citizens, such as "Count Pulaski Courthouse," "Historic Courthouse" and "Restored Pride Courthouse."

Fariss moved that "Old Courthouse" be chosen and, lacking a second, called for a vote. Chairman Jerry White voted with him, but Ira S. "Pete" Crawford and Mason Vaughan voted no. Supervisor Joe Sheffey was not at the meeting, so the tie killed the motion.

Vaughan wanted to postpone further consideration, but White did not.

"I don't know what we're going to know next month that we don't know this month," White said. He then took an informal poll among about a dozen people still at the meeting, and most preferred "Old Courthouse."

Fariss made a new motion to adopt the name that most of those in the audience favored, which happened to be "Old Courthouse." This time, Crawford joined Fariss and White to pass it 3-1.

In fact, the officially designated Old Courthouse is now the new courthouse, since its renovation makes it newer than the brick courthouse next door. But the brick courthouse is now being renovated and expanded, so when the work is completed the Old Courthouse will indeed be the oldest again.

Despite its new name, the Old Courthouse is no longer being used for any of the courts, but for other county offices. All courts, now located temporarily in a leased building on Virginia 99, eventually will be in the renovated brick courthouse.