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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 26, 1994                   TAG: 9410270031
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                   LENGTH: Medium

COMPROMISE REVISIONS FOR PULASKI WAR MEMORIAL IN THE WORKS

The county Board of Supervisors will seek approval from the town's Architectural Review Board on those changes. The review board will have to schedule another public hearing before making a decision.

If the review board accepts the revised plans, the county will drop its appeal to Circuit Court of an earlier decision.

The review board approved the memorial plans with three exceptions: it did not want the bell which survived the 1989 courthouse fire to be included, feeling it would be out of place and exposed to the elements; it wanted two matched flagpoles instead of one traditional and one Navy yardarm pole; and it wanted to eliminate some of the crossing sidewalks.

The county appealed that decision to Pulaski Town Council, which upheld the review board's decision, and then served notice that it would appeal.

But the county Board of Supervisors agreed Monday night, following discussion in closed session, to drop the court appeal if the review board accepts the revised plan.

County Administrator Joe Morgan read the revisions decided on in closed session, and the board voted approval of them. The changes included eliminating the courthouse bell from the memorial for now, eliminating the controversial sidewalks until pedestrian traffic patterns can be determined, and having the Veterans of Foreign Wars put the yardarm attachment on the flagpole only for holidays and special observances.

The changes also include making an eternal flame part of the exhibit. The supervisors had decided in July to eliminate that from the original plan as too expensive to maintain and possibly too dangerous.

The revisions apparently were worked out during an unannounced meeting among Morgan; Pulaski Town Councilwoman Bettye Steger; Town Manager Tom Combiths; retired Army Col. Dallas Cox, who headed the committee which drew up the plans; and representatives of the Architectural Review Board Chairman and veterans' organizations. The meeting was not illegal, because the Virginia Freedom of Information Act requires public notification only when three or more members of a governing body gather.

Supervisor Bruce Fariss suggested placing the fragile Old Courthouse bell in the large supervisors' meeting room in the county Administration Building. He said it is too big to go in the conference room in the refurbished building, and putting it on an upper floor would keep it from public access. The idea will be considered as part of a general upgrading of meeting room facilities.

In other business following the closed session Monday, the supervisors appointed Pulaski County High School students J.K. Fowlkes and Kenny Warden to fill a vacancy for the county's Office on Youth. The students had asked to be allowed to work as a team, but only one vote from them will be allowed.

Pulaski Mayor Andy Graham was appointed as an alternate to the New River Resource Authority board for Town Manager Tom Combiths.