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

DATE: THURSDAY, December 9, 1993                   TAG: 9312090483
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE                                LENGTH: Short

CRAIG COULD BENEFIT FROM BOTH PROPOSED INTERSTATE ROUTES

It can endorse either one route or the other with about the same results.

"Either way it goes, it will have some effect on Craig," said County Administrator Richard Flora. "The routing is not critical to us."

But there is one drawback: with either decision, the board may offend somebody.

As originally proposed, the highway would run west of Craig, but an alternative proposal would route it east of Craig and through Roanoke.

Either route would have about equal benefit to Craig, Flora said.

Craig's supervisors have been asked to endorse the eastern route. But this week they were reluctant to take an official stand, for fear of slighting their friends to the west.

The supervisors decided to endorse whichever route the Fifth Planning District Commission endorses. The commission hasn't decided when it will make an endorsement.

Most of the governments involved are members of the commission.

The supervisors, who in recent months have been shifting some of their development effort toward tourism, believe an interstate highway along the county's borders would help bring in tourists, as well as boosting the general economy.