Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 6, 1993 TAG: 9310060018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: PEMBROKE LENGTH: Medium
Pembroke is the largest town in Western Virginia without such a sewage system.
Last week officials from the railroad told the town it needs the property as a staging area for local maintenance. In return, the town said it would reduce the size of the property needed for the pump station and reroute piping between it and the treatment plant if the railroad would consider the town's increased costs in its negotiations.
On Monday the town's offer was refused in a letter from Jeffrey George, an agent in the railroad's Atlanta office of real estate and contract services. "None of the options in your proposal were acceptable," he wrote.
Only two weeks ago, after months of negotiations, George had offered to sell the town both the third of an acre site and an adjacent half-acre tract the railroad said was useless without the smaller plot.
In that Sept. 13 letter George wrote, "We would be willing to recommend to management that we convey the .84 acre of land to the Town of Pembroke for the price of $8,500."
Apparently, price is no longer an issue, said Randi Lemmon, a consultant for the town from the National Committee for the New River. "All this should have come out months ago."
Lemmon has contacted the office of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, seeking his mediation in the negotiations.
A public hearing on the condemnation proceedings will be held in the town hall on October 19 at 7 p.m.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***