Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993 TAG: 9311110259
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Long
And they don't care what it's called or which path it follows.
George Lester, president of a Martinsville building materials company, hastily called together the group, dubbed Job Link, one week ago when he surmised Martinsville was dying because it lacked the three necessary ingredients of growth - an interstate, a major university and an airport.
An interstate would give Martinsville and the other counties along the Roanoke-Greensboro corridor quick access both to major universities and airports, Lester said.
Lester spoke passionately at a press conference at Martinsville Speedway about how he thought the lack of an interstate has resulted in lost job-creation opportunities for Martinsville and Henry County over the past 30 years.
"In the '40s and '50s, we were the industrial heartland of Virginia and North Carolina," he said. "We are shackling our existing industries with an obsolete road system that cannot provide the access they need to compete."
State Secretary of Transportation John Milliken said the group's formation is a good first step in lobbying for the road. Under the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, Congress called for the creation of Interstate 73 linking Detroit with Charleston, S.C.
It is up to the states to recommend the route I-73 should take, and Milliken said the U.S. 220 corridor from Roanoke into North Carolina is a possibility.
"That clearly is one of our options, no question about it," he said. Other possibilities include following Interstate 77 or Virginia 8.
Milliken said it will likely take two or three years to select a route. He would not speculate on a time frame for beginning construction.
"The single most important thing to remember is that it represents no additional money," Milliken said. "The feds have said, `We want you to have this road,' but have not provided any additional funding."
The group said it intends to lobby for an interstate, even if it fails to get I-73 to pass through the three counties. But considering the cost of building a 90-mile interstate from Roanoke to Greensboro, I-73 is likely Job Link's best bet. Milliken said interstate construction costs anywhere from $2 million to $50 million per mile, depending on the terrain.
Although political bodies from Roanoke to Southside have passed resolutions that I-73 be funneled along the U.S. 220 corridor, this newly formed group pushes the idea from a different direction.
Job Link calls the highway the Roanoke-Triad Interstate. But this thrust comes not from the metropolitan areas on either end of the suggested road, but from leaders who hail from the corridor's midsection. Lester recruited five leaders each from Franklin County, Henry County-Martinsville and Rockingham County, N.C.
As William Goldston, a former North Carolina state senator, said: "This is a first for me. We're usually in competition with Virginia for whatever we do in North Carolina."
Major manufacturers from the textile, furniture and tobacco industries from both states stand behind the effort.
Lester said those manufacturers must not have been heard from years ago when the interstate system was laid out. He pointed out that Interstates 81 and 85 - odd numbers generally run north-south - bend away from Martinsville instead of traveling through it.
Ron Willard, a Smith Mountain Lake developer and a Job Link committee member, said officials must have selected the routes for interstates 81 and 85 by the adage, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."
Willard and other committee members vowed that the Job Link group would be heard, even by Virginia's U.S. senators, Democrat Charles Robb and Republican John Warner.
"There's enough power on this committee to get to Robb and Warner, all those people," Willard said. "I don't see how they can back away from a common-sense proposal."
\ JOB LINK MEMBERS\ \ Franklin County: Abe W. Essig, president, Ronile Inc. Michael Harman, president, MW Manufacturing Walter Hughes, general manager, Fleetwood Homes of Va. Sidney Mason, chairman, Virginia Apparel Ronald Willard, president, The Willard Companies\ \ Henry County: Benjamin R. Gardner, lawyer, Gardner, Gardner, Barrow & Sharpe George Lester, president, The Lester Companies Albert L. Prillaman, chairman, president and CEO, Stanley Furniture Co. Robert H. Spilman, chairman and CEO, Bassett Furniture Industries Inc. L. Dudley Walker, chairman, Bassett Walker Inc.\ \ Rockingham County, N.C.: James M. Daly Jr., plant manager, Miller Brewing Co. William D. Goldston, former N.C. senator Dalton L. McMichael, chairman, Mayo Yarns Garland Rakestraw, owner, Piedmont Tobacco Warehouse S.J. Webster Jr., lawyer, Webster & Cassidy
by CNB