Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994 TAG: 9402250226
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Warner committed to the Roanoke Valley route after a meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday among most of the Western Virginia congressional delegation and regional business and government leaders who support the route.
Even before Thursday's meeting, Reps. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, and Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, had endorsed a route that would bring the road from Bluefield, W.Va., generally along U.S. 460 toward the Roanoke Valley and then along U.S. 220 to the North Carolina line.
Goodlatte, Payne and Warner plan to testify on behalf of the Roanoke Valley route before the House subcommittee on transportation on March 15. The subcommittee is scheduled to begin consideration next month of National Highway System legislation that includes I-73.
Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., who was at Thursday's meeting, supports the concept of I-73 but has not endorsed a route, said Peggy Wilhide, a Robb spokeswoman.
Robb doesn't want to politicize the route selection and is waiting for the staff of the Virginia Department of Transportation to recommend a route before getting involved, she said.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, was unable to attend because of a prior commitment, said spokesman Joe Shumaker.
Boucher, too, is waiting for the state Transportation Department to recommend a route so he can avoid backing one the state does not want, Shumaker said.
Goodlatte, who led the meeting, said he was not concerned about Boucher's absence.
Boucher has several local governments lobbying for various routes in his district, but Boucher has kept the door open to supporting the Roanoke Valley route, Goodlatte said.
The Transportation Department staff is scheduled to recommend an I-73 route through Virginia at the Commonwealth Transportation Board's March 27 meeting in Richmond.
The staff has been studying eight possible routes, determined by local governments in Southwest Virginia that are seeking the road for their communities.
For the portion of the U.S. 460/220 route between Blacksburg and the Roanoke Valley, department planners have proposed two alternatives. One, through the Catawba Valley to Salem, has raised strong objections from residents.
About 150 opponents showed up at a community meeting at Slussers Chapel Church in Montgomery County on Monday night to plot strategy. The next night, opponents urged Blacksburg Town Council to reconsider its support for an I-73 route through the county.
They plan to take their case to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors next Monday.
Frankie Gorman, 60, a lifelong resident of the Catawba area, and his wife, Louise, say the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors also should not have endorsed I-73 before hearing from the public on an issue that will have such an impact on people.
"If the interstate comes through this beautiful valley, it will just destroy the valley," Louise Gorman said.
The congressional delegation is not taking a position on which route the road should follow between Blacksburg and Salem, Goodlatte said. That decision should be up to local governments, he said.
Either route would be close enough to Roanoke to provide economic benefit, Goodlatte said. The other would follow the planned "smart road" from Blacksburg and across Interstate 81 into western Roanoke County, through the Starkey area to U.S. 220 around Boones Mill.
The important thing now is to establish the concept for the U.S. 460/220 route and for Virginia's congressional delegation be united behind a single route, Goodlatte said.
Goodlatte reported that Lee Eddy, chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, gave members of Congress a letter signed by officials in Roanoke, Salem, Vinton and Botetourt County endorsing the U.S. 460/220 route.
Franklin County Administrator Macon Sammons presented an endorsement of the route from the Blue Ridge Region of Virginia. Included in that support were Franklin and Henry counties and Martinsville, joined by business leaders and state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, and Del. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville.
John Stroud, president of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, threw the weight of 5,000 businesses behind the route, and letters of endorsement were received from Dels. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton; Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke; Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke; Morgan Griffith, R-Salem; and Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville, Goodlatte said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***