Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 4, 1995 TAG: 9501040067
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
That site will include space for a 40,000-square-foot building and space for parking, materials handling and building expansion, he said.
Work on the industrial park itself includes water and sewer line extensions, site grading, and construction of a road as well as of a 379,000-gallon water storage tank. Water will reach the tank through lines owned by the town of Dublin, which is contributing $25,000 to the project.
``It's good to see this type of cooperation between local governments,'' Sheffey said.
Sheffey and Assistant County Administrator Peter Huber say the new industrial park is part of the county's response to plant closings and downsizings of recent years. Pulaski County has an estimated 1,864 people unemployed.
If the new park develops as the Pulaski County Corporate Center has, it would create 47 new jobs in its first two years and 156 new jobs in the two years after that.
The industrial park will be located along the airport runway opposite Virginia 100, on the former Collins Farm property.
Construction of sewer lines in the area became necessary to meet requirements for closing the former Cloyds Mountain landfill, to carry leachate from there to the Peppers Ferry Wastewater Treatment plant. The leachate from the landfill is now being carried off by tank truck, so completion of the line will mean less truck traffic on county roads.
The remaining line to the closed landfill will not be built until the state Department of Transportation completes the four-laning of Virginia 100 across Cloyds Mountain, scheduled to start in mid-1996.
Eventually, a 2,500-foot roadway will join Virginia 790 which turns off Virginia 100 into the airport area.
Sheffey said the aviation-related facilities that could be offered at this park will differentiate it from other industrial parks in the surrounding area.
``The development of this property would specifically cater to firms which would benefit from direct access to an airport facility,'' he said. ``The targeting of aviation-related firms in the marketing and development of the proposed facility would further complement the development of the Pulaski County Corporate Center and other industrial parks in the New River Valley.''
Officials hope to attract firms such as those involved in remanufacturing aircraft engines, repairing and renovating aircraft and manufacturing or assembling experimental aircraft, as well as more traditional businesses.
The airport's 6,200-foot runway is the longest in the region. Some of its facilities have been upgraded or are scheduled for upgrading soon. A new administration building is scheduled to be built this summer. All this helps make it an asset to business locating here, Sheffey and Huber said.
by CNB