Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 24, 1994 TAG: 9408240044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The board had given Assistant County Administrator Peter Huber some suggestions for changes in the memorial, including eliminating the placement of the original courthouse bell in the exhibit.
Following a closed session for personnel, legal, real estate and prospective industry discussions Monday night, the county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to continue the construction process for the memorial.
The memorial plan had been reviewed by several committees at the county level, and its location at the front of the courthouse got enthusiastic support last month at a hearing on the matter. The hearing followed a suggestion by some county residents that the memorial go instead in front of the adjunct brick courthouse on 3rd Street.
Now, the supervisors want to move ahead on building the memorial and would like either approval or disapproval from the town's Architectural Review Board. That board had tabled the issue following its suggestions for some changes.
In other business, the joint recreation commission for the county and towns of Pulaski and Dublin asked that nearly $20,000 cut from its 1994-95 budget request be reinstated.
And Supervisor Bruce Fariss moved that the county do so.
Fariss agreed with commission Chairman Jack Leahy about increased participation by youngsters in the recreation programs, and called it less expensive than paying juvenile detention costs for kids with nothing to do but get into trouble. Leahy said participation increased by 23 percent this year over last year, but the funding reduction would mean a cut in programs for the year ahead.
Board Chairman Jerry White said he was not unsympathetic to the request but thought the supervisors should review the participation figures first. Fariss withdrew his motion and the matter was tabled until the board's Sept. 26 meeting.
White told Assistant Resident Transportation Engineer John Thompson that the Department of Transportation needed to crack down on illegal signs, particularly yard sale signs, being placed along public rights-of-way and even over stop signs.
Some of the yard sale signs even had balloons with them, White said. "These things are all over the place." He said they constitute a safety hazard by covering road signs and a litter problem because whoever puts them up never takes them down.
Thompson said such signs are illegal and the department tries to enforce the regulation banning them from public roads. "As you can imagine, it's kind of a hit-or-miss proposition," he said.
Thompson said the department has already posted temporary 35 mile-per-hour speed limit signs at the intersections of Cougar Trail Road (Virginia 643) and Alexander Road (Virginia 683) in anticipation of increased traffic congestion there.
The opening of schools will mean 1,200 Pulaski County High School students and staff members will be coming and going along that road, as will 1,100 Volvo GM Heavy Truck plant employees at a new single-shift release time. In addition, there will be a maximum of 600 workers involved in Volvo GM's plant expansion, and the heavy equipment deliveries that will involve.
Thompson said a study on the future of Memorial Bridge, linking the Fairlawn area in eastern Pulaski County to the city of Radford, has been started by the department and will take about a year. The bridge had to be closed temporarily for some work earlier this year.
The study will consider whether the bridge should be eventually replaced, whether a second bridge should be built over New River, and other possibilities.
The supervisors agreed to subsidize a water line extension to Claytor Lake, anticipating commercial development once the line is in place that would repay the county's investment. The board limited the subsidy to $15,000 a year for up to five years.
The project cost estimate had been $650,000, but the low bid from H.T. Bowling had been about $380,000 above that.
by CNB