Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 24, 1993 TAG: 9308240357
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Faced with a Sept. 2 deadline for obtaining a court order to get the two projects on the ballot, the supervisors will hold a special meeting next Monday night to try to resolve their impasse.
Supervisor Jim Moore of Blacksburg, who has been out of the country, is expected to be back for that meeting.
The supervisors tied 3-3 on a motion to ask the voters for authority to borrow $1.88 million to renovate and expand the Blacksburg library on Draper Street.
A motion to borrow $2.88 million for a new building on Pepper Street in Christiansburg to house the county's Health and Social Services departments and other county human service agencies was headed for a similar deadlock before the board decided to table the vote until the Aug. 30 special meeting.
The board also had been scheduled to vote on adding a $2 million bond question to the fall ballot for improvements to the county's new industrial site on Falling Branch Road. The board, however, agreed to use the county Industrial Development Authority's borrowing power to finance those improvements.
County economic development officials said interest rates on borrowing money through the authority would be as cheap as taking the matter to a bond issue, and the borrowing could be done more quickly.
Unlike the library and health and human services building, the borrowing for the industrial park will not have to go before county voters; it received the board's unanimous approval.
Supervisors Henry Jablonski of Christiansburg and Joe Stewart of Shawsville and Board Chairman Ira Long of Blacksburg voted against the library bond proposal. Jablonski, Stewart and Supervisor Joe Gorman of Blacksburg indicated they would not support the bond issue for the health and human services building if it was brought to a vote.
Jablonski questioned the proposed 16,000-square-foot size of a renovated Blacksburg library compared to the 15,000-square-foot headquarters building for the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library in Christiansburg. He also questioned the size of the proposed $181,000 architect's fees for designing the renovation.
Richard Fitts, the Virginia Beach architect for the Library Board, explained that the Blacksburg Library gets 25 percent more use than the Christiansburg library. He said the architect-and-engineering fee was larger because the project was a renovation rather than a new building.
Stewart and Long indicated they opposed the the library bond question because $150,000 had been added to it for automation of the entire library system. Supervisor Nick Rush of Christiansburg countered that it didn't make sense to build a new library and not include the newest equipment.
Stewart said he guessed he was a little "old-fashioned" in opposing computerization of the library system. Long said he could support the library question if it was reduced from $1.88 to $1.5 million, taking out the automation and cutting other expenses.
Both Jablonski and Gorman said there were too many unanswered questions remaining about the health and human services building project to send it to the voters.
by CNB