Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403150157
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WYTHEVILLE - Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe has no opposition for a new term in the May 3 election, but four candidates are seeking the two open council seats.
Jack Hunley is the only current council member seeking re-election. John Jones, a former council member, is running along with newcomers Richard Gustafson and William Weisiger.
Rural Retreat races
RURAL RETREAT - Rural Retreat will see races for both mayor and Town Council positions in its May 3 voting.
Dr. Doug Humphrey, the veteran town mayor, is being challenged by Jack Weaver.
Nine candidates qualified to be on the ballot for the three Rural Retreat council seats open this year.
Virginia Naase is the only council member seeking re-election. The other eight candidates are the Rev. Larry Bollinger, Charles McMillan, Betty Wingo, Larry Thomas Arnold, Thomas Cassell, Robert Furr, Jimmy Gordon and Jayne Hall.
Phone construction
WYTHEVILLE - Sprint/United Telephone, which serves Wythe County along with two cities and five other Southwest Virginia counties, plans to spend nearly $53.9 million on construction in Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina this year.
``About half of that will be used to provide for growth,'' said Warren Sanders, regional public affairs manager. ``The company expects to add about 12,830 customer lines this year, which would make its year-end total approximately 384,290.''
The rest will go toward replacing and modernizing equipment and facilities.
Sanders said nearly $4 million will be used to replace five electro-mechanical central offices with computerized digital switching. Once that is done, 97.7 percent of the company's customers will be served by digital technology.
One of those offices is in the Rural Retreat area of Wythe County. The $690,000 conversion is scheduled for July.
Another $3.7 million will go into long-distance facilities, including more than $1.67 million for five fiber-optic routes using lasers to transmit information over hair-thin glass fibers. One pair of such fibers can carry 32,000 telephone conversations at once.
The new fiber-optic systems include one from Wytheville to Rural Retreat, scheduled for July at a cost of $75,000.
Paper's office closes
WYTHEVILLE - The office maintained by the Roanoke Times & World-News at 195 S. First St. in Wytheville closed at the end of February, but area coverage is expected to continue as before.
Advances in computer technology make it possible for the reporter assigned to the region to carry a portable computer that requires no fixed base to send data to Roanoke.
Paul Dellinger, the reporter living in Wytheville, has been supervised for several years now by editors at the New River Valley Bureau in Christiansburg and worked mainly in Pulaski County. He will continue taking news information at the same telephone number, 228-4752, and mailing address, P.O. Box 637, Wytheville, Va. 24382. He also has a new FAX number, 223-0975.
The bureau opened in a downstairs room at the WYVE Radio building in 1956 with its first reporters, Alex Crockett and Doug Boy. Others who have been assigned there over the years include Mel Lang, Randy Armbrister, Marty Horne and Hazel Bowen.
Writing classes
WYTHEVILLE - Blue Ridge Books will offer two writing classes this spring for ages 14 and up, taught by Liza Field.
Students will keep a journal and work on enlarging their appreciation of the ordinary. Each class will discuss a weekly reading of fiction, poetry and memoir and will write in at least one of the three.
One class will meet from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sundays starting March 27 and the other from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Mondays starting March 28. The registration fee is $65 if paid before March 21 and $70 after that date. The cost is $55 for senior citizens and participants below age 18.
Field's previous classes have drawn participants not only from Wythe County but the New River Valley area as well. She has taught writing at the University of Michigan, Virginia Western and Wytheville community colleges, and Southwestern College in Kansas and published her own writing in journals, magazines and anthologies. Her work has also been heard on public radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.
Further information is available by calling 228-8303,
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB