Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 3, 1995 TAG: 9502030049
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Factored in for Fiscal 1996 no doubt will be funds for prisons and potholes, wrenches and benches, management seminars and elements of the bizarre.
You know the way it goes with government work of this type. It's the same now as it was years ago when a wise man pointed out that a million here and a million there and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
And of course, as it has been since the days of antiquity, many howl for what they perceive as a rightful slice of an apparently ever-shrinking trove of treasure. Budget hearings will be coming soon to a public assembly hall near you. Awaiting the expected onslaught of big-bucks requests and pleas are the dispassionate elected and appointed guardians of the commonweal. Of this be sure: To each line item will be cast a flinty eye.
So it is with a sense of humility and even dread that I come, chapeau in sweaty fist, with a few modest requests to these great women and men of public service whose task it is to approve the coming year's expenditures.
My appeal comes not on my own behalf, but on that of the hard-working and for the most part silent public employees whose job is the sporting education of local youth. Specifically, this refers to coaches and others who make our local athletic programs work.
They have no agents, no voice nor influential constituency. Only a resume of wins, losses and ties. Thus, I am volunteering to speak on their behalf:
Let's start with the grounds groomers of all the local baseball diamonds. The season is just weeks away and I beg you not to let another year of miracle working go unnoticed and unrewarded. The labor these groundskeeping geniuses perform week after week is the sporting equivalent of spinning straw into gold.
Agreed, no baseball field in the immediate area will be mistaken for Camden Yards. But these humble diamonds are serviceable to the extent that most of the larger boulders have been removed, craters filled in, and baselines drawn more or less straight.
Give those guys a raise before the next springtime blizzard or monsoon ruins their work and compels them to start anew.
While you're at it, don't forget Eric Altizer, the boss of Shawsville High's male basketballers. They've had it a little rough lately. The Shawnees go on the warpath and the their routine return trip home has been atop their own shield.
Altizer stayed calm, though, and Shawsville had occasion this year to celebrate the snapping of Timesland's longest run of futility.
For that, I say Mr. Altizer deserves a fattened contract.
Now that the checkbook is open, how about giving it up for Mr. Robert Priest, the Pulaski County High band conductor. The esteemed Mr. Priest coaxes sweet tunes out of all the tooters, marchers and bangers in his charge. The Cougars band does this without missing many notes or forgetting, as have certain of this band's rivals from other cities, that its first responsibility is music, not historical revisionism.
The doctors who have done the repairs on the oft-damaged shoulder of Blacksburg High football and basketball player Tony Wheeler probably are not underpaid, yet the least that can be done for them is a lifetime sideline pass or permanent seat at the scorer's table.
For the popcorn poppers at Giles High football games and the chili-topped hot dog makers at Ragsdale Field in Narrows, appropriation should be made for starched and crisp chef's hats.
How about some more greenbacks for Alan Cantrell at Floyd County, Todd Lusk at Narrows, and John Howlett at Giles? All three of these brave and hard-working gentlemen coach basketball of both the boys and girls variety. More pay is due all three as a means of compensation for priceless time lost with their families. Either that, or the coaches can spend their windfall for psychological counseling.
As for Cantrell, his whole family is heavily involved with hoops. Maybe he can use the extra dough to develop another hobby.
by CNB