Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 24, 1994 TAG: 9408240043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Instead, they're getting a lesson in negotiating with local and state bureaucracies. If the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control denies a beer-selling permit in a ruling expected today, the fraternity will cancel "Mountain Jam '94."
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, for one, has concerns about traffic control and other public-safety issues surrounding the Sept. 17 festival, which is set to run from noon to 8 p.m.
But after three months of planning, the Virginia Tech fraternity scored one success Monday when the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors granted a music-festival permit - the first-ever since the county adopted the ordinance for such events in 1975.
The county's festival permit will be issued only if the fraternity wins the ABC Department approval. Phi Kappa Psi must also pay the county a $150 application fee and post a $10,000 bond.
If the state grants a one-day banquet permit for Arnold's Sandwiches to sell beer at the concert, then the fraternity can go ahead and sign contracts for the bands, portable toilets, security and food, said Matt Hederstrom, a senior aerospace engineering major and chapter president.
An ABC Department spokesman said the hearing officer would issue a written opinion on the application today.
For now, the multiband concert (preliminary lineup includes Tundra 212, Watershed Down, Icarus and Relish) is up in the air. The fraternity house sits on four acres that Phi Kappa Psi rents at 1391 Sweeny Road, in an isolated, wooded area on the side of High Knob, just south of Blacksburg.
The nearest neighbors are three-tenths of a mile down a rutted, gravel extension of the paved portion of Sweeny Road. The fraternity has yet to notify the residents of five homes leading down to Ellett Road.
"As soon as we get all the permits, that's on the list of things to do," Hederstrom said. Another thing on the list: getting the road graded and ready for the hired vans that will shuttle the Tech-students-only crowd from campus to the festival.
Neighbor Vickie McGlothlin said the fraternity regularly holds weekend parties. "Most of the time it's no problem," McGlothlin said. "An outdoor thing may be a different story. I'm not thrilled about it, naturally."
The fraternity brothers originally scheduled the concert for last April, but canceled it at the urging of its adviser, Tech alumnus Don Barker, who told them to take more time with the planning.
Hederstrom and other fraternity members worked on the logistics, including shrinking the event from 2,500 to 1,500 tickets, through the summer. On Aug. 12, an ABC Dept. official held a hearing in Blacksburg on the banquet permit.
An official with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office testified at the hearing with concerns about the event's possible impact on public safety, according to County Attorney Roy Thorpe. That sheriff's official is out of town for training and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Before approving the permit, members of the Board of Supervisors questioned the fraternity president and chapter advisor on everything from the number of portable toilets to be used (25) to how much money will be donated to the Easter Seals ($500 to $1,000).
"It looks like they have thought this plan out," supervisors Chairman Larry Linkous said.
by CNB