Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 14, 1993 TAG: 9307140424
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
After all, that is one of Virginia Tech's colors and the town could be called Hokieville.
"Orange was chosen because of all the Hokie fans in the area," said Laura Bullock, a spokeswoman with the transportation department in Salem.
Wrong. Nope. Sorry. Bad idea.
Blacksburg residents and town officials weren't pleased with the "unsightly hue" picked for the new Glade Road bridge completed last month.
A grass-roots organization, Coalition of BRIDGE - Blacksburg Residents Infuriated by Detestable & Grotesque Epidermis - was formed to fight "the aesthetically insensitive fence."
"It's just ridiculous," said David McKee, one of the group's organizers. "Maybe there are a few of us that aren't spirited enough."
To drive their point home, members of the group distributed pamphlets urging Blacksburg residents to protest the orange bridge at Tuesday night's council meeting.
"A short-lived way to improve the quality of your life, or at least the ride to work," read the tongue-in-cheek flier.
The protest was called off late Tuesday afternoon, though, when McKee learned the transportation department will replace the orange fence - built to prevent objects from being thrown from the bridge onto U.S. 460 - with a silver-oxide fence.
Town Manager Ron Secrist said Arlin Surratt, a project engineer with the transportation department, has assured him the fence will be changed by the end of the year.
"We have been working on this for several weeks because the town was concerned with the color," he said. "It really looks like construction fencing."
The orange sides and underbelly of the bridge likely will remain unchanged, but McKee said that's OK.
"The fence was the worst part," he said.
Bullock said the transportation department had good intentions when it picked the color.
"I'm sympathetic," she said. "It was a decision made in good faith."
The Glade Road bridge incident isn't the first time Blacksburg residents have been fickle about colors displayed around town.
Last August, the manager of the T-shirt factory repainted a column outside the store from Hokie orange to beige after hearing it was unpopular.
by CNB