Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502270033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Supervisor Jim Moore released the results of his fourth annual issues survey on Friday. Slightly more than 100 of the 339 respondents answered through the Blacksburg Electronic Village.
Sixty-eight percent agreed environmental regulations are "too lax," while 32 percent thought them "too strict." Meanwhile, 79 percent said new subdivisions should be required to hook up to public water and sewer systems.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents agreed the county should try to make U.S. 460 from Blacksburg to Giles County a scenic highway. Moore included a question on the subject in light of the controversy over Radford Price's plans to build a gas station across from the Pandapas Pond recreation area. The board last month rezoned 12 acres in the largely undeveloped area from agricultural to general business use.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents favored rezoning the more than 200 acres north of Blacksburg for the Patton's Grant retirement community, which will come before the board this spring. Sixty-six percent, meanwhile, thought a new interchange on Interstate 81 at Falling Branch near Christiansburg is a "good idea."
Other results: 69 percent thought the school system's "homework hot line" is a good idea; and 61 percent said trash collection and landfill operations should not be privatized.
The survey cannot be considered a statistically valid sample of the county's 29,400 registered voters.
"It's not a scientific survey, but it does give me sort of an intuitive feel when things come up for a vote," said Moore, first elected to the board in 1989 and re-elected in 1993.
The number of respondents to Moore's survey expanded courtesy of the Blacksburg Electronic Village.
Slightly more than 100 people answered the survey by computer, and the number of respondents increased by more than 100, from 204 last year. (Moore's first survey, in December 1991, brought 313 responses; 199 people responded to his second effort in February 1993.) Forty-five percent of the answers came from Moore's District A, which covers central Blacksburg and northeast Montgomery.
This year, the survey also served as an experiment in using the community computer link to gauge public opinion. Blacksburg's planning department is following in Moore's footsteps. It has posted a survey for town residents to help guide the writing of the 1996 comprehensive plan.
Moore asked 11 questions, but concedes that the phrasing on one was "very biased" and on two others was flawed to the point that the results are not meaningful. A fourth question was based on a statistic that may be distorted by the presence of the thousands of Virginia Tech students in Montgomery.
by CNB