Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 3, 1994 TAG: 9403030145
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Moore, re-elected last fall to a second four-year term, released the results Monday. Though it normally garners only brief notice in the local press, this year the survey prompted angry shouts from the crowd that packed Monday night's supervisors meeting to protest the board's earlier endorsement of a proposed Interstate 73 route through Montgomery.
One of Moore's eight queries asked: "Should I-73 from Detroit to Charleston via Winston-Salem come through Montgomery County?"
Moore said 191 people answered: 126, or 66 percent, said yes; 65 said no.
"This survey can in no way be construed as scientific, but it is helpful to me in making decisions involving taxpayer dollars," Moore wrote in a statement accompanying the results.
The survey is unscientific because it is not based on a random sample of the roughly 10,000 people Moore represents. Moreover, as with any survey, the wording of the questions can all but dictate responses.
For example, one question asked if the county should borrow money to develop the Falling Branch industrial park "which will provide jobs." Seventy-nine percent of respondents said yes. Not mentioned was the impact of such borrowing on the county's real-estate tax rate.
Moore distributed the survey in December to civic groups and clubs across his district, which includes part of downtown Blacksburg and most of northwestern Montgomery, including the Catawba Valley.
Moore also asked: "To solve our long-term solid waste problem, should Montgomery County join the New River Resource Authority in operating a regional landfill on the slopes of Cloyds Mountain in the Jefferson National Forest area?"
The response: 118 people, or 78 percent, said yes; 33 said no. The county has been negotiating with the authority since the fall.
The retired Virginia Tech industrial engineering professor also asked: "Is development taking place too slow or too fast in Montgomery County?" The results: 62 people, or 36 percent, said too slow; 70 respondents, or 41 percent, said too fast; and 39 people, or 23 percent said "about right."
The remaining questions dealt with giving taxing authority to elected school boards, local regulation of cable TV rates, whether the county should pursue a charter and whether Montgomery should attempt to reduce costs by applying for city status with Blacksburg and Christiansburg. Fifty-nine percent of respondents gave a thumbs down to the regional city government question.
by CNB