Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994 TAG: 9402090203
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
``Today Pulaski Main Street is recogized as one of the most outstanding Main Street programs in the state of Virginia,'' Mayor Gary Hancock said.
The business celebration also had a touch of deja vu for Main Street Director Roscoe Cox, the man many call the mayor of Main Street.
"I prefer to think of him as the ambassador of Main Street, but I really can't argue with either one,'' Hancock said.
Main Street Board President Billy Smith presented Cox with a plaque containing a poem with a familiar ring to it.
Except for a little bit of updating, it was the same poem presented to Cox about 30 years ago after his Chamber of Commerce work to revitalize the community then.
Success was measured in the same terms both times - new businesses, more shoppers downtown and a need for more parking space to accommodate them.
But when Cox and his wife, Vivian, returned to Pulaski more than a year ago following his retirement from a firm in South Carolina, they found a less active downtown marked by vacant stores.
``We looked up and down Main Street and it really wasn't something that we could be very proud of,'' Hancock recalled.
Now those empty buildings are tenanted, Hancock said. Tour buses stop to shop for antiques and collectibles. License plates on parked cars along Main Street reflect a variety of states.
``Roscoe has gotten the word out to other people. The roads that used to carry people away from our town now carry people to Pulaski,'' Hancock said. ``I can say it from the bottom of my heart, that Roscoe Cox has made a tremendous difference in Pulaski.''
Some merchants never left Main Street and weathered hard times, Hancock said, while the new businesses ``are here to give us what I call our new Main Street.''
Hancock said thanks are also due to past and present members of the Main Street board, new merchants who have invested in the town, financial support for Main Street from Town Council, ``and I want to thank the people of Pulaski because they have had a faith in our downtown as well. ... Pulaski, Va., is open for business again.''
``I think all of us have done a job,'' Cox said. He predicted there would be still more new businesses on the street this year.
Also honored at the event at the Renaissance Restaurant were Jack and Audrey Jackson for their volunteer work on Main Street advertising and fund-raising programs. They received a personalized print by artist P. Buckley Moss from Main Street Gallery.
``It's just been wonderful. I love this town,'' Audrey Jackson said.
She was one of four people named Monday night to new three-year terms on the Main Street Board of Directors. The others were Debbie Jonas, Marlis Ryssel-Flynn and Paul Etzel.
by CNB