Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 26, 1994 TAG: 9401260393
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The unanimous vote Monday night follows endorsements of the Pulaski County route by Dublin Town Council and the Pulaski Encouraging Progress organization.
There have been a number of proposals from Southwest Virginia counties on how to route the proposed interstate highway through the state from West Virginia into North Carolina. Neighboring Wythe County is pushing for it to be added to the existing Interstate 77 and 81 corridor through Bland, Wythe and Carroll counties.
``We're looking at a five-to-0-mile corridor right now,'' said Resident Transportation Engineer Dan Brugh.
He said the corridor out of West Virginia has been pretty much narrowed down to the Bluefield, W.Va., area. But whatever route is picked, he said, it will be a long time before the highway is actually built.
Public hearings on possible routings are scheduled for 4 to 7:30 p.m. tonightJan26 in Abingdon, Thursday in Wytheville, Tuesday in Martinsville, Feb. 21 at the Blacksburg Holiday Inn and Feb. 3 at the Roanoke Airport Holiday Inn.
In other business, the board agreed to work with rescue squads throughout the New River Valley on uniform standards for handling ambulance patients.
``We need to coordinate ambulance servicesso that the volunteer crews work with the same set of standards,'' said Supervisor Bruce Fariss, in proposing the initiative. ``This is something that's really important for the region.''
He said not all trauma patients arriving at hospital emergency rooms have gone through the same medical procedures on the way, which hampered physicians in knowing how to treat them.
County Administrator Joe Morgan noted that the Southwest Virginia Emergency Medical Services Council is also working toward uniform standards as well as a communications system for this part of the state.
The supervisors also approved a budget calendar, under which all budget requests are to be submitted to Morgan by March 21. The county School Board will present its proposed 1994-95 budget at a meeting April 11, which is when Morgan will offer budget recommendations to the supervisors.
Other agency and department budget presentations are set for April 18. A public hearing will be held on a proposed budget May 16, and a budget will be adopted May 23.
The supervisors will continue holding their regular monthly meetings at 7 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month in the county Administration Building, except for December when it will be a week early to avoid a meeting between Christmas and New Year's.
The board viewed four designs for a county seal, all variations of a circle with the courthouse clock tower illustrated in the middle. Fariss said the staff-prepared designs had too many words to describe what is obvious in the illustrations.
Some of the seals gave the date when the courthouse was rebuilt, following a fire that destroyed it in 1989. They included descriptive phrases such as ``A Symbol of Excellence'' or ``A Vision of Excellence.''
Fariss said the time on the clock should be a key element of the seal. He suggested that it be the time when the fire caused the clock tower to fall, ``because you don't know what time it was when it struck the first time.''
by CNB