Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 12, 1994 TAG: 9401120264
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
After hearing from the public in a packed courtroom, council voted 6-0 to grant a permit for a day-care facility to be located in the Cornerstone Church of God on Draper Road.
The approval was the next-to-last chapter in a story that began in September when Mount Tabor Nursery School and Day-Care Center announced a new curriculum that included religious instruction.
Parents angrily withdrew more than 80 children from the facility, and 18 staffers resigned. Soon thereafter, many of the parents came together to get a new day-care center up and running.
"When the [Mount Tabor] school closed down, there was nothing else available," said Gary Downey, cradling his 18-month-old daughter in his arms with his wife, Marta, by his side. The two have been keeping as many as five children in their home - the most the law will allow - while they and other parents tried to get day care.
"If it's not at that place [Cornerstone Church of God], there are very few other alternatives," said Dan Dolan, who said he was president of the families working to form a new center. The group still will have to purchase the facility from the church and refurbish it.
Mount Tabor's former director, Gulbun Esen, applied with the Church of God on Draper Road in asking council to grant the special-use permit. She said she hoped to hire most of the staffers that resigned with her from the Mount Tabor facility.
Several residents raised concerns about the increase in traffic the facility would bring to the one-way street and the possibility of accidents.
But while some council members shared those concerns, they sided with Virginia Hummel, who lives near the proposed center.
"I unequivocably support the day-care center," she said. "Somebody has got to look out for these children."
In another matter, council added Blacksburg to the list of communities hoping to get proposed Interstate 73 to pass through on its way from Detroit to Charleston, S.C.
Council passed a resolution asking the Virginia Department of Transportation to consider routes through Montgomery County. The county passed a similar resolution Monday night; the Christiansburg-Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors passed its version last month.
Several routes are under consideration for the highway that Congress included in a 1991 transportation bill - without allocating any funds for it.
The highway may never be built, but if it does become reality localities want to be in line to be a part of it.
The Department of Transportation is to hold a public hearing on the matter Feb. 2 at the Blacksburg Holiday Inn.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***