Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406300077
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Dallas Cox, representing the Courthouses Committee, presented recommendations for the memorial at Monday's meeting. The final plan came after four years of committee discussions.
The monument will go in front of the restored stone courthouse on Main Street. Cox said the monument would enhance the courthouse and add to the attractiveness of downtown Pulaski.
``We're not obscuring the courthouse in any way and, properly lit, I think it would be very elegant,'' he said of the monument.
Cox has gathered 124 names so far of Pulaski County residents who were killed or missing in action in the nation's various wars or had been prisoners of war. Their names will be inscribed in marble with room for others as additional names become known.
Supervisor Bruce Fariss was concerned about the eternal flame that will be part of the monument. United Cities Gas Co. estimated the cost of operating it at $180 per month. Fariss said that seemed excessive, and that the flame might attract vandals.
But in the end it was Fariss who made the motion to accept the plan, and the supervisors approved it unanimously.
The supervisors voted 4-1 to remain a part of a regional jail study until it is confirmed that the state will fund half of the proposed project. The city of Radford and counties of Giles, Floyd and Grayson also are involved. Wythe, Bland and Carroll counties are part of the geographic area being looked at for a regional jail, but they are not participating at this stage.
Fariss, who voted against Pulaski County's continued participation, said the wording of the latest agreement still did not obligate any locality to stick with the project. ``I feel we should be in or out,'' he said. ``I see us crawling into this to the point that we're not going to be able to do anything but be totally committed.''
Other board members said they saw no harm in staying in the program until they had the necessary information to decide whether a regional or single locality jail would be best for Pulaski County.
Pulaski County has the largest number of prisoners of any participating locality, so its acceptance was vital to the effort continuing to allow application for state funding and Farmers Home Administration financing.
The board also voted unanimously to deny $4,800 to the Circuit Court clerk's office to tie its computer system in with that of the Virginia Supreme Court. Fariss, in moving that the request be denied, noted that the county had been investing for several years in an independent computer system for the office and he did not want to see that abandoned.
The supervisors went further and voted that all requests for computers or computer equipment would have to go through a county computer committee before coming to the board.
The board will contact its state legislators to see whether the General Assembly is requiring localities to provide credit card equipment for court offices. If so, several supervisors agreed, it is another unfunded mandate the state is imposing on localities.
Plans for an amusement park off McFall Hollow Road (Virginia 699) in the Draper District were turned down Monday night. The supervisors voted unanimously to deny the necessary rezoning request by Willie W. Taylor of Dublin to change the zoning from Agricultural (A1) to Conditional Commercial (CM1), following objections by other residents in the area.
They also denied a conditional use permit to allow Draper Mountain Ltd. to place a mobile home park off Lee Highway (U.S. 11), Milstead Place (Virginia 770) and Honaker Road (Virginia F044) at the Hillsville exit off Interstate 81 in the Draper District.
They approved a zoning change from Residential (R2) to Conditional Commercial to allow a marina catering service off Dunkard Road (Virginia 661) and Barton Drive in the Dunarks Bottom-Lakeshore Subdivision in the Ingles District. The service will be operated by Doris and George Williams of Dublin.
They also allowed a conditional use permit for Humane Society activities such as meetings, bingo and yard sales in the former Holdren's building off Peppers Ferry Boulevard (Virginia 114) in the Cloyd District, but agreed to re-evaluate the yard sale part of that within a year.
by CNB