Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994 TAG: 9404280198
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Short
But to hear Roger Hedgepeth, running unopposed for a fourth and, he says, final term as mayor, he's on the inside looking out.
As he has in the past, Hedgepeth said this week, "We cannot operate in isolation."
Whether that applies to working with Roanoke leaders in the New Century Council, trying to have some say in where Interstate 73 runs, or working with the surrounding local governments, Blacksburg is not in a position to dismiss other political powers out of hand, he has maintained.
At the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County forum Monday, he and the Town Council candidates were asked if Blacksburg should become a city.
Hedgepeth put his answer in context, saying that "as a neophyte mayor in 1982" he did support that, but that was 12 years ago, and the community was overwhelmingly against such a move. "I wasn't born yesterday; I can take a hint," he said of the opposition.
Today, independent city status would not benefit Blacksburg's citizens, he said. But referring to Christiansburg, Montgomery County and even Radford, he said, "We all need to be singing from the same hymn book, and that would make city status a moot point."
Hedgepeth, assistant director for cooperative education at Virginia Tech, has lived in the town more than four decades. He recalled living on Airport Road in 1955. "It was a good life," he said. "But in 1994 ... we must recognize what's going on externally" and build bridges.
Repeating a favorite quote, he said, "We know what yesterday was but tomorrow is not what it used to be."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB