Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994                   TAG: 9407140006
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

LAND SWAP FOR LIBRARY PROJECT OK'D BY SUPERVISORS

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors early Tuesday approved swapping a small portion of land with Blacksburg as part of a detailed contract covering improvements to the library on Draper Road. The library expansion was approved last year in a countywide bond referendum.

The vote came after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations between county and town officials and an hourlong closed-door board session that ended after 1 a.m. Tuesday.

The Blacksburg Town Council will consider the contract later this month. The supervisors' vote authorized Chairman Larry Linkous to sign the contract if the council approves it.

Once the contract is signed, the county can begin negotiations on construction, said Supervisor Joe Gorman, one of two board members involved in the talks with Blacksburg officials. The Board of Supervisors had planned on selling bonds for the library and health and human services building projects in the fall. Gorman said he might push to move that up, to take advantage of current interest rates.

Though the library branch is in the middle of Blacksburg, it sits on county-owned land. But the $1.9 million expansion will require a slice of land in the right of way of the former Huckleberry railroad, which was deeded to Blacksburg in 1967. The Huckleberry Trail bikepath will still pass by the library.

Under the proposed 20-year agreement, the architect for the library expansion, Richard J. Fitts, would recommend to the Town Council and supervisors the amount of town-owned land needed for the project. The two governments then would have 45 days to swap. They must also hold a public hearing.

In return for a portion of the old railroad easement, the county would turn over to the town an equal amount of nearby land it acquired two years ago under an earlier plan to expand the library. The land, part of a subdivision recorded in 1912, sits near Harrell and Miller streets.