Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 15, 1994 TAG: 9402150293
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Girl Scout leader. Roanoke Planning Commission member. Museum of Fine Art docent. Blue Ridge Bicycle Club director.
Duerk left space for one more organization: Roanoke City Council.
Surrounded by a gaggle of cheering family and friends outside the First Union Tower, Duerk announced that she would seek the Republican nomination for one of four City Council seats on the March 1 ballot.
City Republicans will choose their slate of candidates at 7 tonight during a mass meeting in council chambers.
Duerk supporters carried balloons and wore aprons with the slogan, "Roanoke Proud."
Duerk, 47, said she waited until Valentine's Day to make her announcement because "the heart of my campaign is my love of Roanoke."
Her family moved to Roanoke in 1957, when she was 11 years old. Her father, the late C.E. "Kai" Norris, was the owner of Howell's Motor Freight Inc. and a member of the Roanoke School Board from 1969 to 1973.
After her marriage to accountant Gary Duerk, she settled into life as a homemaker, raising two daughters and performing volunteer work.
Duerk is best known for her advocacy of incorporating bicycle paths into road expansion projects to ease traffic congestion and pollution.
"The Department of Transportation should not, cannot, continue to asphalt Virginia for the sake of individuals in automobiles," she wrote in a letter to the editor last summer.
In recent years, Duerk also has spoken out on other issues:
She urged City Council to consider putting police officers on bicycles, as well as on horses.
She told a city panel studying elections that the city should retain its at-large system of council elections.
As president of Neighbors in South Roanoke, she opposed weekly stock car races at Victory Stadium.
At her announcement, Duerk said she would prefer not to talk about specific issues until she had secured the GOP nomination.
\ BARBARA NORRIS DUERK\ Age: 47\ \ Occupation: Homemaker\ \ Family: Gary Duerk, husband; Katrina Kai Duerk and Valissa Lee Duerk, daughters\ \ Education: Graduated from Patrick Henry High School in 1964; attended University of Kentucky\ \ Civic organizations: Neighbors in South Roanoke, Roanoke Neighborhood Partnership, Blue Ridge Bicycle Club, South Roanoke United Methodist Church Administrative Board, Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council, League of Women Voters, Roanoke Symphony Women's Auxiliary\ \ Committees: Roanoke City Planning Commission
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB