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

DATE: FRIDAY, May 14, 1993                   TAG: 9305140010
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

THEY'VE SEEN DOWNSIDE; THEY'RE READY FOR UP

He and his wife, Susan, looked at two houses they were interested in buying. Both sold before they could make arrangements.

Combiths, 43, who has been away from Pulaski for about 30 years except for visits, noted that business properties are being bought up, too. The place is growing, he said.

"We came from a place where the sun is setting to a place where the sun is rising," he said Wednesday during his first day on the job.

The Combithses and their four sons came from Palmdale, Calif., where he has worked in various planning and administrative posts since 1985.

Palmdale also is the site of the Rockwell International plant, where NASA's space shuttles were built and still are serviced. Combiths gave each Town Council member a souvenir belt buckle from Palmdale with the shuttle Columbia depicted on them.

Combiths began moving into his new office Tuesday night with the help of his sons; the job was completed Wednesday.

The rest of his moving-in activities followed a ham-biscuits-and-pastries gathering in the municipal building Wednesday morning, where Combiths and his wife met town employees and council members.

"I do want to spend more time outside the office than in the office the next few weeks. I think that's important," he said.

He and his family are staying temporarily with his brother, Allen, who knew Combiths hoped to move to the East Coast and let him know about Town Manager Don Holycross moving to North Carolina last January.

Combiths applied and was chosen from about 140 applicants.

The older boys - Daniel, 12; Stephen, 10, and Nathan, 8 - have been attending Pulaski County schools for more than a month. The Combithses also have a 4-year-old son, Ben.

"We've been very pleased with the schools," Combiths said. They are somewhat ahead of the schools the boys had attended in California, he said, so their mother may tutor them this summer to help them catch up.

The boys may prefer that to the California system, where schools stay in session all year.

Susan Combiths said she was impressed with the Pulaski County schools and teachers. She trained to be a teacher herself, but her career was sidetracked by marriage.

She is not worried about the boys lacking for entertainment. Movies in California were not always an option because of the R-rated nature of the films, she said, and there are not that many places for young people to go that are safe.

"So actually, in our eyes, this community has more to offer," she said.

Combiths has been running into people he met growing up in Pulaski - a newspaper reporter he taught to swim and dive one summer and a woman who has been at a bank for more than 45 years, to name just two.

"My wife is the one who has the big adjustment, but she has really fallen in love with Pulaski," he said.

The place is not totally new to her, since they have visited members of his family in the area since their marriage about 15 years ago.

During the meeting with town employees, Combiths was asked if townspeople are likely to assume a high level of performance on his part, since he used to live here.

"I think the expectations are a little higher, and I think that's good," he said. "It's good to be challenged."