Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 13, 1993 TAG: 9307130295
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
"It just wasn't a place we wanted to go if they didn't want us," Fred Altizer, the Department of Transportation's Salem District engineer, said Monday.
The Transportation Department was looking to lease 15-20 acres of Virginia Tech farm property as a site to train maintenance workers in the fine points of hauling gravel, driving graders and clearing drainage ditches. Most of the work would have been done on the old Virginia 311 roadbed.
Supporters said the Transportation Department's academy would have no more impact than a typical farm operation. But some Catawba residents feared the training academy would become a blight on the rural valley.
Opposition leader Eric Trethewey said highway workers would create noise, tear up pastureland and create erosion in creeks.
With Catawba off the list, Altizer said the state would push ahead with its search for a training site in the western part of the state.
Roanoke County Supervisor Ed Kohinke said he would welcome the Transportation Department, provided residents were "not too wildly against it."
Kohinke said a training center would improve county roads by increasing the number of state workers available to patch holes and mow weeds.
by CNB