ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994                   TAG: 9401140369
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-9   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                  LENGTH: Medium


HOSTS WANTS NEW WELCOME-CENTER SITE

The New River Valley HOSTS are seeking a new home for their welcome center which has been housed at the Dublin Comfort Inn since it was established several years ago.

Motel officials volunteered to make space available for the center and ``they've been very supportive,'' said outgoing HOSTS President Peter Huber. But HOSTS would like to see the project taken on by other tourism facilities now.

Huber, who is assistant Pulaski County administrator, completed his term as HOSTS president Wednesday. He was succeeded at the annual membership meeting at the Comfort Inn by Charles Whitescarver, director of the Norwood Center at Radford.

Mildred Laine, who schedules the volunteers manning the center, said it had more than 9,700 visitors during 1993, about the same as the previous year.

The organization covers all the localities in the New River Valley. Its major project besides operating the visitors' center is seeking state accreditation for the valley's tourism program.

That effort got a major boost with a $2,500 donation from Signet Bank in Pulaski.

Whitescarver said he hoped that example might leverage contributions from other financial institutions for the HOSTS program.

The accreditation requires that a locality meet 22 standards, and HOSTS has completed 12 of them so far. The 18-month process was to have had a deadline for being completed later this month, but the state Department of Economic Development Accreditation Progress Committee has approved a three-month extension through April 21.

One of the standards still to be met is compiling a library of both color and black-and-white photographs of tourist attractions, historical buildings, drama performances or other tourism-oriented subjects. The committee rejected the first submission of photos as insufficient, but HOSTS hopes to be able to meet this standard soon.

Anyone who might have photos to donate to the project should contact Jill Barr at 619 Second St., Radford, Va. 24141 (telephone 731-3623), preferably within the next two weeks.

Another standard to be met involves visits with existing tourism businesses throughout the New River Valley and completion of state questionnaires on each one.

Whitescarver said that will take the involvement of more HOSTS members than are active with the organization currently. ``Right now, we're at the point where it's time to stop the rhetoric and start dealing with results,'' he said.



 by CNB