Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993 TAG: 9311250153
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
Christiansburg in 1956 was a quiet farming community and county seat with a population of about 2,400. But Straub, who was then mayor and de facto town manager, believed it was time for the town to come of age. The community needed its first full-time town manager to oversee orderly growth.
Nearby, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg was about to expand dramatically to become the state's largest university. Straub knew Christiansburg could benefit from that opportunity if it was ready.
So he hired John Lemley, a 27-year-old Korean War veteran, Virginia Military Institute graduate and engineer with the town of Wytheville. Lemley's reputation had preceded him. He was the first and only person Straub interviewed for the job.
"I hired him because I thought he was a damned good man, and it turns out I was right," Straub, now 82, said recently. Moreover, Straub needed help. "I was busy enough being mayor."
He needed someone who could professionally manage growth, especially installation and maintainance of water and sewer lines.
The quiet, meticulous Lemley fit the bill perfectly. He's been at it ever since.
At 37 years on the job and counting, he is the longest-tenured town manager in the state. Along the way he has garnered a far-flung reputation. He took office Oct. 19 as the Virginia Municipal League's newest president, a job that in most years goes to elected rather than appointed officials.
And when his one-year term expires next October, Lemley says he may finally retire. His health is fine, he says, but eventually it will be time to move on.
By dent of his position and tenure, Lemley is one of the most influential people in Christiansburg and perhaps in the New River Valley.
He played a leading role in Christiansburg's 1988 annexation of the property north of town at the the U.S. 460/Virginia 114 intersection that Blacksburg had been eyeing.
The annexation was a strategic coup - in one move capturing for the small town a rapidly expanding commercial center that has become a shopping magnet for the whole New River Valley.
The tract now includes the New River Valley Mall, The Market Place shopping center, Wal-mart, Kmart and other stores spread along U.S. 460 and Virginia 114.
That annexation at once provided room for growth and enlivened the town's image.
And folks are still talking about it.
Roger Hedgepeth, mayor of Blacksburg, remembers that officials in his town didn't realize what was going on until it was too late.
Lemley told them about Christiansburg's plans at the end of a routine once-a-month meeting between the two towns and Montgomery County, Hedgepeth said.
"John said `Oh, by way, we have just submitted the appropriate papers to annex that property.'
"That was the most devastating `Oh, by the way,' I've ever heard," he said.
They caught us unawares, Hedgepeth said. "[Lemley] was out front in that whole thing, more so than the council. They have a situation in which they have a strong town manager, and the council lets him take the lead."
The way Lemley tells it, the annexation should not have been that much of a surprise. Christiansburg had tried to annex that property in 1974, but couldn't. The courts allowed the town to expand only as far as Virginia 114 [Peppers Ferry Road].
Christiansburg spent the next decade putting in streets and water lines. Then the mall came in and hooked up with the facilities Christiansburg already had in place.
The next step was logical: try again to annex property that was increasingly becoming a part of Christiansburg in spirit if not in fact.
And indeed the town has flowered during Lemley's tenure. Since 1956, Christiansburg has grown to become the state's fourth largest town, with a population of just over 15,000. It's area has increased from one square mile to 14 today.
Part of Lemley's success and influence is a result of the way he carries himself. Lemley, who retired as a full-bird Army colonel in 1981, is at once deferential and confident, patiently articulate and incisive. He can be naturally curt, then avuncular when he remembers himself.
"Respect and integrity are his greatest attributes," said Ron Secrist, town manager in Blacksburg.
Indeed, mention Lemley's name to folks who know him and have worked with him, and they gush.
"He's an outstanding town manager," said Christiansburg Mayor Harold Linkous. "Many times he's taken on projects that have saved the town money because of his engineering background. . . . I suppose he knows where every pipe in the town is. He's grown up with it."
"I consider John Lemley the best town manager in the state," Straub said. "We haven't been overaggressive in growth, and the town has been run as soundly as an organization could be run."
Even folks who might at times have an adversarial relationship with Lemley find kind words come easily when talking about him.
"John is very fair. He always has the best interest of the town of Christiansburg at heart," said Joe Draper, a local contractor who has worked with Lemley on about 50 subdivision and apartment projects in town since the mid-1960s. "The best thing about John is when he tells you something, you can put it in the bank. That's not true about every municipality we work with."
One of Lemley's attributes is his knowledge about the town, Draper said.
"He pretty much keeps himself aware of what's going on. You don't easily catch him by surprise."
Lemley himself is a man of few words when asked about his accomplishments. "I'm not one to blow my own horn."
Richard Yearwood, a former chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and an associate professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech, says Lemley's career may have been capped by the 1988 annexation.
Lemley, though, is reluctant to dismiss other events and developments in town during his tenure. Christiansburg's consolidation with Cambria during the 1960s is something he mentions.
"The consolidation at that time was quite an accomplishment," he said, but he added, "certainly the 1988 annexation was a good move on the part of the town of Christiansburg."
Secrist is impressed that Lemley has been able to stick with the job so long. Nationwide, town managers last only about five years before moving on.
It's a tough job, Secrist says, offering an insider's perspective. Town managers are always in the public eye, and they're sometimes on call 24 hours a day. "It's a job that is full of surprises and challenges."
But Lemley says he is of the "old school." His focus "has always been to accommodate growth and industry."
Though growth brings headaches, it also brings prosperity and opportunity, Lemley says. "You can't maintain the status quo."
More and more state and federal mandates, especially governing environmental, water and sewer issues, are adding complexity to his job.
"That's not to say all of them are wrong. It's just that there's an ever-increasing amount of them."
Still, Lemley says he likes being town manager in Christiansburg, and several aspects of the job have made him want to stay with it so long.
Both his colleagues and the council members he has worked with over the years have made the job easier, producing a unique atmosphere in the town and on the job. As a rule, the people in Christiansburg "are down to earth" and prudent in their decisions, Lemley said.
"If they understand why something is done or being done, then they are very supportive of it."
And the job itself has kept his interest.
It provides him with a sense of accomplishment, and it's rarely routine.
"You're always faced with something new."
Not bad for 37 years on the job.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB