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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 30, 1993                   TAG: 9306300172
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

POTENTIAL TENANTS LINE UP FOR EMPTY SCHOOL BUILDING

Jefferson Elementary may have closed as a school this month after seven decades, but other agencies are ready to move in as soon as renovations are done.

The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors saw responses from potential tenants Monday night.

It would cost an estimated $5,900 to put in a handicap ramp in the building's rear and to adapt restrooms for the handicapped. Electricity, based on school use, would be $9,000 a year; heating, not more than $18,000; and insurance, $1,200.

New River Community Action's Head Start preschool already is housed in two rooms at Jefferson, and Terry Smusz, Community Action director, said she would like to see it stay.

Other rooms could house Community Action's Pulaski-area office. Rent for the Head Start space would be $750 a month and, for agency offices, $300 a month.

Koli and Debbie McPeak, who own Koli's Mexibilly Salsa, want to lease the cafeteria for $200 a month to make their food products. Another $34 per month would come from adult-education use.

Other possible tenants include the Youth Emergency Shelter Task Force, Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce and a Pulaski County Straight Street teen center now being organized.

Pulaski YMCA Director Jack Leahy is chairman of Pulaski County Straight Street. Such a center has operated in Christiansburg for about two years under Bob Anderson.

Several Christiansburg youths told the supervisors how the program there had helped them resist negative peer pressure and provided activities for them. Also on hand was Rick Ouimet, who helped start Virginia's first Straight Street in Lynchburg five years ago; he now is involved in setting them up in other states.

"We don't call ourselves a Christian teen center, but we call ourselves a teen center run by Christians," Ouimet said. He said Jefferson would be an ideal location for such a center because of its open interior design.

Straight Streets include video and recreational facilities. At Christiansburg, it also contains donated computers for after-school educational programs.

by CNB