Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 4, 1994 TAG: 9405040125
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
Like a turn-of-the-century traveling quack, change is often greeted with caution - its uncertainty like the cure-all concoctions and silver-tongued speeches that are too good to be true.
It's the perfect place for a mayor to serve a 47-year term.
"I don't think people around here like change, even over small things," said Thomas Crews, who has lived in Pearisburg since 1978. "That's really true with the mayor. People were just so used to him running unopposed."
But change is inevitable, something hundreds of citizens here proved Tuesday when they came to Town Hall on an unseasonably cold spring day to choose a new mayor - the first since 1946, when Clarence Taylor took the post he's held ever since.
Election officials said a steady stream of voters came all day - about one every two minutes - all concerned about their town's political future.
"People have been so used to him running unopposed, it's hard to get used to something different," Crews said.
The election comes almost 14 months after Taylor announced his retirement, explaining that it was time for someone else to pick up the gavel.
Taylor, 84, won 18 elections over his career, most of them unopposed, before stepping down last year - enough to give him a page in Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not.
"I'd just be happy to live another 47 years," joked John Givens, one of three mayoral candidates who stood outside since 6 a.m. to greet residents coming to vote.
However, Givens said there is more to worry about now than simply the length of term.
"You need a changing of the guard," he said. "I think there are going to be more problems down the road."
The other candidates agreed. While Taylor's popularity has made him a town legend, they say they are not willing to fill his shoes or surpass his lengthy tenure.
"It's a totally different situation now," said Dan Level, another candidate. "The mayor for a small town has been a figurehead in the past. It can't be that way anymore."
Level said even though townspeople were cautious, the voting Tuesday indicated they were finally ready for a change.
"There's two schools on that," he said. "Some see the need for an active mayor, and some just want the title." He said the voting should reflect that.
The candidates are just as sentimental about Taylor's monumental length of term as the voters, but they say there is much more to be done in Pearisburg.
"Times have changed," said Mary Tebault, who was also running. "We'd love to see it like it used to be on a Saturday afternoon, when you couldn't get through the street for the shoppers, but it's just not like that anymore. You have to work with the times."
Keywords:
ELECTION
by CNB