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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 25, 1995                   TAG: 9501260058
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

ARMORY USE PACT PASSED

An agreement to formalize the city's use of the Radford National Guard Armory finally passed City Council's muster Monday after considerable sparring over some sticky points in the pact. The city's schools have used the building near Radford High School since its construction in the 1950s, but the arrangement was never committed to paper.

That casual relationship between the city and the building's owner, the Department of Military Affairs in Richmond, began to unravel after the School Board asked to install removable flooring to better accommodate wrestling practice and other activities. Negotiations to "reconcile the various interests that call the armory their own" have dragged on for over a year, Superintendent of Schools Michael Wright told council. He said the city already cleans the armory and provides heat and other utilities.

City Attorney John "Bunny" Spiers, who discovered the lack of a building use contract, told council the city now has "no viable agreement whatsoever" and could be kicked out of the building, while the new lease gives the city some rights.

But school officials went to the mat to pin down some changes in the document, so detailed that it specifies the maximum permissible noise level (60 decibels) and the direction of play (north-south) in the building, as well as the number of parking spots reserved for the military (five) and other minutiae.

"The Department of Military Affairs has not worked at a good faith effort at anything we have suggested," charged School Board member Carter Effler, who accompanied Wright to the council session.

Wright asserted problems with the armory's use by the schools arose when the National Guard stationed a new full-time sergeant there. A sergeant who answered the armory's telephone Tuesday acknowledged "some problems," but said his superiors have asked him to stay out of the fray.

When push came to shove, however, the grappling ultimately centered on "the cage," a fenced-in area inside the building where wrestling mats have been stored for the past decade. The Department of Military Affairs proposed removing "the cage" - which Spiers said fails to meet city code and is illegal anyway - and storing the mats in a new building adjacent to the armory. Athletic Director Norman Lineburg said the mats are very heavy and difficult to move back and forth daily during wrestling season.

Mayor Tom Starnes agreed. "It's sorta asinine when you get down to it," he said of the military's objections.

Wright pushed for less-specific wording that called for removing the storage area "as soon as a mutually agreeable alternative storage facility is available." City Council unanimously went along with the new language over the objections of Spiers, who already had assured the military folks in Richmond they had a deal and was reluctant to change it further.

But Starnes was adamant. "If you write it, I'll sign it," he told the attorney.

Spiers was still battle-weary Tuesday. "Now I'll have to write and tell them [the agreement] wasn't OK," he lamented.

by CNB