Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 23, 1993 TAG: 9311230403
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Brian Kelley
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yes, that`s the bow-tie wearing, soundbite-spouting, icon of the Roaring `80s - Nancy Reagan's boy. He's also a fine writer, whether you agree with his politics or not.
His Nov. 8 topic wasn't tuition vouchers, the balanced budget amendment or some other conservative mantra.
Rather, Will wrote about how difficult it is to eliminate any government program that has a constituency. It struck me there`s something of a parallel right here in bucolic Montgomery County.
More specifically, the echo is in the five months of delay and hand wringing the Montgomery School Board went through before finally voting 8-1 last week to close the tax-subsidized cannery behind Blacksburg Middle School and consolidate its operations with one at Auburn High School in Riner.
Will`s column concerned a New York congresswoman's effort to kill off the 90-year-old Civilian Marksmanship Program, a relic of the Spanish-American War that costs $2.5 million a year.
While she and others in Congress considered it an obsolete program that subsidizes ammunition purchases for sport shooters, other politicians defended it as all but crucial to the future survival of the republic.
In the end, the House and Senate both voted to preserve that bit of government pork. Granted, $2.5 million is less than a drop in the bountiful bucket of federal spending.
But that's where the canneries and Montgomery County come in. The canneries sit on school property and are funded through the $42.8 million school budget, which the county School Board sets and the Board of Supervisors, because it has taxing authority, appropriates.
The canneries amount to a speck of that spending, an estimated $11,000 to pay for both operations this fiscal year. Gardeners, students and farm-fresh produce enthusiasts can bring their harvests to the canneries and, for a small fee, preserve them for the long winter months.
But the fee doesn't pay for the cannery operation, according to school officials. And more importantly, the Blacksburg cannery takes up space that could be used to relocate a technology education laboratory, which in turn would free up space for two new classrooms inside the crowded school building.
Cannery supporters made their case before the School Board at September and October budget hearings, and after listening I certainly see how the canneries help some people save money and feed their families.
But did Montgomery really need two, especially considering only 57 people used the Blacksburg cannery from July to Oct.18? And did the School Board really need to spend five months pondering the question?
School Board Vice Chairman Robert Goncz of Christiansburg hit the nail on the head when he recounted a conversation he had at work. One of his employees said he couldn't believe the School Board was even talking about the issue. The worker asked Goncz, ``What business are you people in?''
One cannery is plenty, the board decided. It shouldn't have taken so long to figure that out. The appointed School Board put students and educational needs before lovers of canned fruits and legumes.
The question now is will the elected Montgomery Board of Supervisors, because its members serve specific constituencies, resurrect the cannery issue come budget time this winter?
And, more personally, will I go beyond George F. Will's conservative commentary? Will I become an old fogy and frequently annoy young whippersnappers in their 20s by quoting William F. Buckley and recounting the career of Winston Churchill?
Maybe I'll save that for turning 40.
by CNB