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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 15, 1995                   TAG: 9502150058
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

RADFORD COUNCILMAN WANTS NATIONAL GUARD OUT OF THE ARMORY

A bouncing ball that sparked the battle over the city schools' use of the Radford National Guard Armory - for decades used by students for everything from aerobics to wrestling - has become a potential bombshell. Over the past two years, initially minor gripes over noise from sports activities have escalated into a simmering turf war.

Now, with negotiations in the final stages, City Councilman David Worrell plans to ask the National Guard to surrender the armory to Radford.

Worrell said Tuesday he wants the National Guard to combine its Radford unit with one of the others in the area and vacate the premises. "Whether or not this is at all possible, I don't know," Worrell conceded.

Maj. Tom Wilkinson of the National Guard said a detachment of 50 to 70 people use the building on the Radford High School campus once a month to drill. Staff Sgt. Jerry Epperly works in the building weekdays on paperwork, he said.

School and National Guard officials agree it was the sergeant's noise complaints that eventually led the military to demand a detailed, formal agreement to let the schools use the building. The agreement between the city and the Virginia Department of Military Affairs specifies such items as noise levels and direction of play. Wilkinson said such joint usage agreements now are required.

Worrell said he doesn't understand it. "For years, we have had an excellent relationship with whoever was in charge," he said. "Now, all of a sudden, one person is holding us hostage."

Worrell's may be a pre-emptive strike. School officials, who have engaged in behind-closed-door talks with the military for over two years, suggest the military has wanted the schools out of the armory ever since the complaints began.

"We feel they have been holding us by the throat, threatening to throw us out of the building," said Guy Gentry, chairman of the School Board.

But, Wilkinson said the military wants to work with the schools. "We're not trying to throw them out," he said Tuesday.

Like the proverbial bad penny, the issue again turned up on City Council's agenda Monday night. The latest bone of contention involves "the cage," a fenced-in area used to store wrestling mats the military wants removed. Getting rid of the cage would allow a direction of play that would eliminate the bouncing ball problem, Wilkinson said.

Council earlier agreed to eliminate the storage area "as soon as a mutually agreeable alternative storage facility is available." The wording turned out to be "not acceptable" to the military, which countered by stipulating that, if an alternative storage site has not been agreed to by April 1, the city must remove the cage and equipment by May 1.

City council, with Worrell the lone dissenter, OK'd that wording Monday and sent the agreement to Richmond.

Council declined Gentry's request to incorporate preliminary plans for a storage structure adjoining the armory, but agreed to enclose them with the contract. Gentry still worried Tuesday about the lack of a storage area, but said the schools can live with the rest of the contract.

Radford High School Principal James "Buddy" Martin said the armory is essential to the school's programs. But he admitted he thinks the schools would be better off if the military wasn't there. "It would be better off for both parties, if we had separate facilities," he added.

by CNB