Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 9, 1994 TAG: 9405100033
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Joe Kennedy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
As the Tour DuPont committee of the county's fledgling tourism commission, they were faced with deciding how to handle, and benefit from, the big race, which on Tuesday will bring 112 bicyclists from 16 teams and 16 countries to more than 35 miles of their mountainous roads. If things go as scheduled, sometime between 2:10 and 2:30 in the afternoon, during a solar eclipse, the riders will roll through the heart of New Castle on Main Street.
At each of the two meetings, six to eight citizens sat behind long tables in a second floor room of the county office building. Most were women. They included merchants, an extension agent, New Castle's mayor and vice mayor and the Craig County administrator. They studied and discussed the tasks of beautifying the town and the roadsides, of calling the attention of the international media to the area's history and scenery and of getting the bike riders and their entourage in and out with no damage to property or people. Their goal was to do it while spending as little money as possible.
New Castle has about 200 residents and not so much as a yellow caution light, much less a traffic light. It has numerous old homes of classic design, a Main Street that conjures up visions of horses and wagons and the old Central Hotel, from which you half expect to see Jesse James or Wyatt Earp emerge, wiping whiskey from his mustache and scouting the scene for signs of trouble.
More than half of the county is national forest land, and farms and privately owned forests occupy nearly half of the rest. The county's trout streams, creeks and hiking trails are magnets for fishermen, hikers and hunters. Other than campgrounds and one bed and breakfast inn, the county has few places for visitors to stay overnight. With about 4,300 residents in 336 square miles, it's a quiet jewel, only 35 minutes from Roanoke.
I've always liked Craig, but I fell in love with it again as the committee members struggled to find answers to modest questions.
Could the town of New Castle buy flowers in baskets to hang from the light poles? It might able to come up with $75, Mayor Tommy Zimmerman said, but someone else would have to pay for the flowers that would go in the boxes outside the courthouse later on.
What about balloons? A tank of helium costs $35, said Janet Myers, who owns a flower shop and greenhouse and sells balloons. That was deflating news.
While these things were under the microscope, a thought suddenly came to me: How much money was in the town budget? I leaned over and asked Trudy Lowery, the vice mayor.
``Thirty-three thousand dollars,'' she whispered. ``But it hasn't been approved.''
I laughed. This meeting reminded me of the ones Sharon and I have at home, where we try to figure how much we can spend on the farm, what we can buy for the kids and where we can go on vacation. Sessions like these are where much of the nation's work gets done.
The committee members and their friends got a lot done. At the second meeting, Jane Johnston reported that the garden club members had each agreed to buy a basket of flowers to hang from the poles on Main Street on race day. Janet Myers reported that she would, indeed, blow up some balloons. Richard Flora, the county administrator, and Tommy Zimmerman said they'd just finished marking off parking spaces on Main Street. The spaces would be painted before the race.
Judy Greene, a lawyer, showed the sheets of historical material she had sent to media across the state. She said she had asked several storekeepers and restaurant owners to track their receipts before, during and after race day, to see if the event brought in any money.
Diane Lee said she had spoken with ESPN, and she also had obtained a race program for each of the 680 or so children in the county's schools. Jane Johnston said the Craig County Historical Society would serve homemade vegetable beef soup and sandwiches at the old hotel starting at 11 Tuesday morning, and the gift shop would be open. Other groups would hold bake sales on Main Street and elsewhere.
Debbie Snead, the extension agent, said the Crossroads Church on Virginia 615 would serve lunch Tuesday at its picnic shelter.
One item remained: The overlook on Virginia 42 needed a cleanup - brush and branches were obscuring the view, said Jane Johnston, who added, ``I've been fussed at by a number of folks.''
Flora said he would send over some citizens who had received community service sentences from the court. They'd spruce it up.
Nobody had any idea how many people might show up to watch the race, but the committee members hoped it would be a lot. Their county at last would be in the spotlight, at least for part of a day. I asked them what message they wanted to send.
``Come early and spend plenty of money,'' Flora said, drawing laughs.
And, said Debbie Snead, find a reason to come back.
Time Out, by Joe Kennedy, looks at life in the middle years - marriage, family and contemporary events - from a perspective both serious and light. It appears every two weeks.
by CNB