Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411230146
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors voted to approve $10,000 Tuesday to pay for part-time traffic guards between 6 and 8 a.m. and 4 and 6 p.m. until July, when improvements to the intersection should be complete and a traffic light installed.
Lee Eddy, board chairman, asked whether the initial eight or nine trucks a day justified a traffic guard, but Supervisor Harry Nickens said the intersection already is a traffic problem. Hanover Direct's truck trips are expected to increase to 60 a day by May.
The company is building a 530,000-square-foot distribution center for its Domestications catalog merchandise. By January, 100 employees are expected to begin working, and trucks will begin carrying in the stock. By May, 300 employees will be working there.
Supervisor Bob Johnson, who was not at Tuesday's meeting, asked county staff to study ways to deal with the traffic at the Old Hollins-Plantation intersection. He represents the Hollins District.
The county is investing $1.4million in incentives for the warehouse, which officials expect to provide major economic benefits to the Roanoke Valley.
The guards will be hired through a private security company with whom the Police Department already deals.
In other business:
The board approved "lending" $2.5million from the county water fund to the county sewer fund to pay for sewer expansion lines and interceptors as part of sewage-treatment plant improvements. The loan will be repaid to the water fund over 20 years with 5 percent interest, county Finance Director Diane Hyatt said.
Supervisors authorized $40,000 to pay for the county's "visioning" process. The community project, to be done in advance of the 1995 comprehensive plan update, involves bringing together a cross section of residents to put together a community profile and list priorities for the future. The money will be used to pay for outside technical assistance, a survey, printing and promotional expenses.
The board approved on first reading a proposal to allow an outdoor firearms training range for police to return to the Dixie Caverns landfill. A public hearing will be held next month on the proposal. Roanoke County had a range at the landfill until 1986, but had to use other ranges once the landfill was found to contain hazardous waste. Part of the landfill is a Superfund site and is being cleaned up by the county.
Roanoke County police say it's difficult to schedule time at other sites to train for firearms recertification. Dixie Caverns is the only county site that has room for a range and is in a suitable location, a report to supervisors said. Police would use the site, which is not near the toxic-waste cleanup, weekly or biweekly.
by CNB