Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After some contentious debate, City Council voted unanimously Monday night in favor of a study to identify sites, users of the facility and possible funding mechanisms for a field house. There was no time limit placed on the length of the study.
The 6-0 vote followed a parliamentary roller-coaster ride in which Mayor David Bowers and two council members tried unsuccessfully to kill the idea, arguing a potentially multimillion-dollar project was being rushed into haphazardly.
Passage finally came after a youth advocate accused council of bypassing young people in favor of grandiose economic development schemes like the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center project.
"Forty-two million for the Hotel Roanoke. I saw that come together in incredible time," said Martin Jeffrey, director of community outreach for Total Action Against Poverty. "We always seem to find justification and rationale to put youth issues on the back burner. This City Council has made things happen, despite process, plenty of times."
"It looks like the effort is being made to make council look anti-youth, anti-sport, anti-everything," said Councilman John Parrott. "This is too important to do in a hurry. We've got plenty of time."
Edwards, who has been working with a group of residents on the proposal during the summer, originally proposed a 90-day study. The committee found a potential site - a mostly abandoned shopping center on Hershberger Road, the former site of Celebration Station.
It is on the market for $3.25 million, and architects have estimated it could be built into an indoor track facility with an adjacent ice rink for another $1.5 million to $2 million, Edwards said.
"There's a growing need for such a facility in the valley," Edwards wrote in a letter to council on the subject. There is no indoor track facility in the Roanoke Valley, so high school athletes must travel to Blacksburg, Lexington or Lynchburg for indoor track practices and meets, he said.
The subject also came up at a discussion of regional cooperation issues by city and county leaders who had lunch together Monday.
Roanoke County student-athletes would benefit from a field house as much as city students, Edwards told the group.
Testifying Monday night in support of the project were Jeffrey; Frank Anzalone, coach of the Roanoke Express; Finn D. Pincus, a track coach at Roanoke College; and Richard S. Pittman, president of the Roanoke Valley Youth Hockey Association.
The Express hasn't had a local practice facility since the March 1993 snow-related collapse of the rink at the LancerLot Sports Complex in Vinton.
Parrott, Councilman William White and Bowers argued that the field house should be considered as part of the regular capital projects process in the city and should not be rushed.
Although an indoor athletic facility isn't part of the current five-year capital budget, there is $100,000 available for a study if voters approve a $23 million bond referendum in November, Bowers noted. That money is also earmarked for studying possible renovation of Victory Stadium.
"What we're about to embark on, I think, it's a dangerous process or it's an unusual process ... there's $178 million in capital projects that we considered this year," Bowers said. "What do you say to the other people who had their projects [sidelined]? It certainly has not been the way we've done business in the past."
Parrott, a construction consultant, said he toured the site and found it unsuitable.
"I think that's the goofiest idea, from a construction standpoint, that I've ever seen in my life ...," he said. "What you're buying is a lot, because that facility will not suffice."
by CNB