Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 13, 1993 TAG: 9307130240
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed that the authority could use $92,000 from the repayment of a $362,000 loan to purchase the two-story brick building on Roanoke Street in Christiansburg.
The only disagreement that arose was over how the $270,000 balance of the loan repayment was to be handled in the county budget.
Board Chairman Ira Long wanted the money put into a general account that would make it clear that the board controlled its future use. But Supervisor Henry Jablonski wanted to put the money in an account with a name indicating that the money is intended for industrial development.
"It really doesn't matter what you call it; we still have control of the money," Supervisor Nick Rush said in an attempt to cut off the prolonged verbal wrangling over where the money should go. "We could call it the Mickey Mouse fund," he said.
The 1985 loan was used for the construction and sale of two industrial shell buildings, one in Christiansburg now occupied by Ames Textiles and another in Blacksburg occupied by Tetra Sales USA.
The $92,000 loan will be repayed when the Health-Tex building (formerly known as Imperial Reading building) is sold or leased to a new tenant.
Also Monday night, the supervisors unanimously agreed that architect Richard J. Fitts should proceed with the preliminary design for a new branch library in Blacksburg. Fitts recommended that an addition be constructed to the existing library building which will be extensively remodeled.
"The renovation will be so complete that most people will not believe it's the old building," Fitts said.
The county will save between $100,000 and $250,000 by remodeling rather than constructing a new building, Fitts said. The total cost including equipment and possible relocation of the library during a 12-month construction period has been estimated at $1.8 million.
The supervisors will use the preliminary design that Fitts said should be ready by August to help persuade people this fall to vote in favor of a referendum to pay for the renovation.
The board discussed including the estimated $165,000 cost of a library automation project in the building referendum. Jablonski said that the computer facilities are similar to other utilities included in the construction.
The automation project would provide users of the Montgomery-Floyd regional library in Christiansburg and its Blacksburg and Floyd branches with a computerized card catalog. The library staff would receive a computerized system to check out books using bar-coding similar to that in grocery stores.
Currently the books that are being checked out daily - 1,700 in Blacksburg; 1,300 in Christiansburg; 800 in Floyd and 400 through two bookmobiles - are being processed by hand. Automated checkout would allow library employees to concentrate on helping patrons in other ways and would reduce the need for expanding the library staffs, officials said.
Steve Helm, the library's computer specialist, said the library is the largest in Southwest Virginia and among the last in the state to be automated.
Through the automated system, library users in Christiansburg and Floyd would be able to use the Blacksburg electronic village, which comes on line this fall, Helms said. The access to Internet, the worldwide science and research network, that the library system would provide will boost economic development efforts in the area, he said.
"The new library building and the automated system blend together time-wise . . . both should come together," Library Board Member Nancy Hurst told the supervisors.
In other business, the supervisors instructed County Attorney Roy Thorpe to prepare an interpretation of the agreement and court order that created the Route 460/114 Corridor Planning Advisory Council.
Supervisor Joe Gorman said the council recently discovered it has less influence over the development of the road corridor than it thought. The state Department of Transportation approved an entrance and exit for the Checkers restaurant onto U.S. 460 in Christiansburg contrary to the wishes of both the county and town, Gorman said.
by CNB