Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 27, 1994 TAG: 9404270056
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Long
There was serious doubt at the time whether Pulaski would even have enough candidates to fill the four seats that would become vacant. Councilman C. Don Crispin was seeking a second term, but Nick Glenn had decided not to run again, and senior council member Andy Graham was going after the mayor's post instead.
The only candidate at that point besides Crispin was Jacob A. ``Jake'' Blevins, a retired Hercules operator/foreman living on Dora Highway. So Schrader decided to go for another term and hope that at least one more candidate would come forward.
Within a matter of days, he got his wish in spades. The May 3 ballot will have nine contenders for the four slots.
The others are John W. Stone, manager of the Dublin Comfort Inn; John B. Hager, director of quality assurance at BBA Friction; W. Edgar ``Eddie'' Hale, owner of Martin's Pharmacy; Bettye H. Steger, who spearheaded Pulaski's Neighborhood Crime Watch program; Lea E. Kelly, manager of the Mudpike Arts and Crafts Mall near Christiansburg; and Tina Phillips Ferguson, a lab coordinator with Hoover Color Corp. in Hiwassee.
Ferguson and Kelly are both members of the Pulaski County High School class of 1979, which will have its 15th reunion in July. Both women are hoping to be celebrating victories in their council races as well.
Ferguson graduated from Roanoke College with a degree in biology. She taught seventh- and eighth-grade science and coached girls' sports at Pulaski Middle School for three years, then moved to Richmond as a research technician with the state Air Pollution Control Board and later was a research associate for American Filtrona Corp. which makes fiber products such as cigarette filters.
It was her marriage to Thomas Ferguson, associate pastor at Memorial Baptist Church where she now sings in the choir and teaches Sunday school, that brought her back home.
She was trying to get some younger candidates to run for council, but some of them turned the tables on her. ``I was trying to encourage other people to run and, basically, they encouraged me,'' she said.
She agreed, mainly from a desire of ``trying to contribute back to the community that contributed to me,'' she said. She feels that her science background will be helpful, as council must deal increasingly with environmental issues.
Kelly also is interested in having new blood on council.
``I've lived in Pulaski County all my life ... It's just something that I've decided to do,'' she said of her candidacy. ``This is a new chapter in my life. I'm excited.''
At the arts and crafts mall she has managed since last June, Kelly handles all the chores from bookkeeping to cleaning. ``I do it all,'' she said.
Although she has not done any public speaking lately, she is not worried about doing it in connection with her campaign. In school, she did a lot of it as a member of the Future Farmers of America and the Agriculture Committee.
She and her husband, Bryan, have a 9-year-old daughter, Nicole. ``She's real excited about Mom running for council,'' Kelly said. ``She wants to be my campaign manager.''
Hager graduated from Pulaski County High School one year earlier than Ferguson and Kelly. He earned a degree in chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University and worked about eight years in College Park, Md., before moving back here in 1992.
``Just saw a lot of changes in the town, and all of them weren't for the positive,'' he said. ``I really wanted to try to contribute to building both the energy of the people back as well as the town itself back.''
What struck him most was coming to a Christmas carol sing, and fewer than 10 others showed up. ``That really was depressing to me,'' he said. ``A lot has gone out of Pulaski, that's for sure.''
Even the success of the town's Main Street program in filling formerly empty storefronts is not enough, he said. ``I think it's great what they're doing, but can a town survive on just a bunch of antique shops and art shops? You have a lot of visitors who come by and browse, but I'm not sure they put a lot of money into the economy.''
Hager wants to see more recreational and entertainment activities available for townspeople. ``You've got to have things out there to get their interest,'' he said.
Hale is one of those new antique and art shop people. He opened Court Square Antiques on an empty floor above his pharmacy last year and provides space to up to 30 dealers.
He graduated from New River Community College with an associate degree in science in 1975 and the Medical College of Virginia School of Pharmacy in 1979. He owned or managed several drug stores in Radford before buying Martin's Pharmacy in Pulaski in 1985.
Hale said he and his wife, Kathy, have never had second thoughts about moving with their three children from Radford to Pulaski in 1988. ``Pulaski has been good to me, and I would like to have the opportunity to give a little back,'' he said.
``I feel that running a town is like running a business. My varied experience in business, from being an employee to starting my own pharmacy to acquiring an established business and running it for nine years, will be an asset to Pulaski Town Council,'' he said. ``We need to make sound business decisions, and I think that's what I can help with.''
Stone, who manages a motel in Wytheville as well as the Dublin Comfort Inn and is regional director for two more in Tennessee, feels the same way about his more than 20 years' experience in the hotel business. He has handled budgets of more than $10 million a year and more than 300 employees at the largest hotel he managed. He said he likes to think in terms of opportunities rather than problems.
``I care about where I live,'' Stone said. ``I think we need to be a little more aggressive in trying to deal with the jobs situation. There is room for economic development both on the county level and the city level.''
Pulaski has a wealth of resources that could be used in attracting the tourist trade, he said. ``It obviously has done well for the state of Virginia.''
Stone served in Vietnam in the U.S. Navy, completing his service in 1973. His wife, Donna, grew up in Wytheville, and that prompted their move to this area. They have three daughters and two grandchildren.
Steger has been involved in Neighborhood Watch programs for five years now. She became interested in it when her home was broken into twice, and her car was stolen.
But when she showed up at an early Neighborhood Watch meeting, she had the same experience that Hager had with the Christmas carol gathering. ``Fourteen people was not very responsive for a town this size,'' she said.
She took a leadership position in the effort, and the 20 percent decrease in breaking and enterings since then has shown its success. She received the 1991 Virginia Crime Prevention Association Citizen Award for her work and another award from the governor two years ago.
Steger also pushed for so-called McGruff Houses, where children can go for refuge in case of trouble. As a mother and grandmother, she said, she was concerned about child safety.
A piano teacher for 35 years, Steger has taught in the schools as well as giving private lessons. She learned about business when she and her husband owned a laundry and dry-cleaning enterprise, before he retired.
``I'm mindful of water rates and sewer rates, because we dealt with that,'' she said. She also is bothered by ``how people can stand on the sidelines and be critical and never jump in and help ... I only work part time, so I have the time to give the council.''
Blevins, an early candidate, wants to try to improve services and access in the Dora Highway area where he lives.
This year's ice storms resulted in part of Dora Highway being closed until stabilization work can be done. ``We got to get something done real quick,'' Blevins said, noting that people could be left with no way out if past flooding repeats itself.
``I've been gong to council meetings for several years,'' he said. ``If I get in there, I feel like I can make an honest decision, and I feel like I can make the right decision ... I've got some ideas that are going to help the town.''
He said he would push for better police salaries, so the town department does not lose employees to higher-paying departments after training them. He opposes the present council's hiring of a consultant to recommend new water rate structures, he said.
In that, he agrees with Crispin, a council member who opposed it. ``Me and Don's running side by side, I guess,'' he said.
Crispin worked for Hughes Aircraft, then at Lockheed in California for 27 years as an electronics engineer, after graduating from Valparaiso (Ind.) Technical Institute. His son works at Lockheed now.
He and his wife had visited her family here during their years on the West Coast and, when he retired, they decided to move here.
The issue that prompted Crispin to run for his current term on council was the location of the Memorial Square Shopping Center. He took the town to court twice over its location in a residential area, but was unsuccessful in stopping it.
``I felt the citizens were not getting a fair shake,'' he said. ``So I felt I would do what I could from the inside.''
With the shopping center no longer an issue, Crispin has pushed for recognition of local students who achieve scholastically. ``We`re moving into the 21st century and, if we don't have smart people, well-educated people, we're going to fail in the world marketplace,'' he said.
Crispin sometimes finds himself voting in the minority on issues before council. That does not bother him. He remembers his father's involvement in small-town politics.
``He lost every time he ran, but he was always very much interested in the political process, so I was exposed to that,'' Crispin said. ``I don't believe there's anything that's impossible. The impossible just takes a little longer, but, if you don't pursue it, it doesn't get done.''
Schrader has now found himself among a larger than expected number of candidates, but his reasons for running are no different than when he sought his first term, he said.
``It's still the same reason. I'm a lifelong Pulaski resident ... I've got two children I'm raising here,'' he said. Schrader, who works at Hudson Chevrolet, has lived here all 41 years of his life, ``and I just want to give something back.''
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB