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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 21, 1994                   TAG: 9401210333
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

NARROWS CONSIDERS I-73 EFFECT BEFORE SEEKING ROUTING

Amid the jockeying over the proposed Interstate 73, Narrows has watched as a string of New River Valley governments and groups have endorsed routes that would pave over much of the small town's commercial strip along U.S. 460.

Narrows, the western gateway to the valley, is waiting before jumping in the fray.

Located between East River Mountain and Peters Mountain, this small town of 2,000 offers the only natural gap into the New River Valley from the route through Bluefield favored by West Virginia officials.

The question, from the town's perspective, is what effect a 500-foot-wide interstate corridor would have on the small retail district along 460?

The gap along the New River there is only 720 feet across, Narrows Town Manager Rob Mercure said.

During a Wednesday meeting of a regional transportation planning advisory group in Blacksburg, Mercure explained that town officials are concerned they are being forced to take sides on the I-73 issue without having the time or staff to perform sufficient study.

``The political winds are blowing very hard,'' Mercure said. ``We are undecided but very concerned.''

The Town Council and Planning Commission talked over I-73 and its potential impact on Tuesday night but decided to hear from residents before passing a resolution one way or the other.

They will hold a public information meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 31 at Old Narrows High School. That's two days before the Virginia Department of Transportation holds its own public meeting in Blacksburg, to give New River residents a chance to learn about and comment upon the three potential I-73 corridors that cross the valley.

``We hope to come from that meeting with a clear sense of what the town wants to do,'' Mercure said.

Though funding for construction of the proposed new interstate between Detroit and Charleston, S.C., is years, even decades away, Highway Department staffers hope to present a recommended corridor to the Commonwealth Transportation Board by March.

While Giles County officials have endorsed a U.S. 460 corridor, neighboring Pearisburg hasn't taken an official position on I-73. But the general feeling on the Pearisburg Town Council is that an interstate would have a positive effect, Town Manager Kenneth Vittum said Thursday.

There's some concern that one of the three corridors - from Pearisburg down Virginia 100 by Dublin and Pulaski to U.S. 52 - would adversely effect downtown, Vittum said. But both other New River routes - one that would go to U.S. 220 by way of Blacksburg, and the other that would follow U.S. 460 to Virginia 8 and Floyd County - would be beneficial.

The new transportation group, which first met last month, includes representatives of the four counties, one city and 10 towns that make up the region. With a name only a bureaucrat could love, the New River Valley Rural Planning Organization Technical Advisory Committee is designed to act as a forum for arriving at consensus on regional transportation goals.

The Wednesday meeting ended without a consensus or specific comments to be forwarded to state transportation officials, though resident engineer Dan Brugh and other highway experts were there and answered several questions.

by CNB