
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 6, 1993                   TAG: 9310060270
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEVE KARK SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: PEMBROKE                                LENGTH: Short

PEMBROKE BATTLES RAILROAD

Town Council has voted to begin condemnation proceedings against Norfolk Southern Corp. to acquire less than one-third of an acre.

The town needs the property, which NS has refused to sell, to build a pump station for its proposed $5.5 million sewage treatment plant.

Pembroke is the largest town in Western Virginia without such a sewage system.

Last week, NS officials told the town the railroad needs the property as a staging area for maintenance. The town said it would reduce the size of the property needed for the pump station and would 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.

Two weeks ago, after months of negotiations, George had offered to sell the town both the one-third-acre site and an adjacent half-acre tract the railroad said was useless without the smaller plot for $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 will be held in the town hall on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.

by CNB