Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503060003
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER, RON BROWN AND JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Bedford County Sheriff's Department has 16 deputies and four investigators to patrol a 770-square-mile county with 45,000 residents - and the fastest population growth rate of any locality west of Richmond.
"I've been asking for four extra deputies. That's less than one per 2,000 people. But I keep getting turned down," Bedford County Sheriff Carl Wells says.
Deputies are expected to do more than just patrol the roads. "We provide 24-hour coverage for law enforcement, and we also have to serve civil papers and work the courts," Wells says.
"The problem is we don't have a backup system. We try to put people where the most calls are coming from. You may have two men in Forest and you may have nobody in Forest."
New fire departments
When the Roanoke Valley's newest volunteer fire department opened in 1991, planners thought the Read Mountain fire station would double in size in the future.
The future may have arrived.
The number of calls that Read Mountain handled doubled from 230 in 1992 to 467 in 1993 before finally leveling off last year.
Already the volunteers are clamoring for a new firetruck to keep pace with residential and industrial growth in the Cloverdale community along the Botetourt County-Roanoke County line.
Since 1991, about 500 homes have been added to the area around Alternate U.S. 220 and five new industries have moved in.
Two schools - a middle school on the Botetourt side of the line, an elementary school on the Roanoke County side - are on the drawing boards.
Plans have been developed for several hundred houses, including condominiums and apartment buildings, plus more new businesses.
"The growth around here has been unbelievable," says Bobby St. Clair, the department's assistant chief.
So unbelievable that now Botetourt County is talking about starting another fire department a few miles away at Daleville.
Not much book space
When you go to the Forest branch of the public library in Bedford County, you also can go to the post office. They're in the same mini-mall.
The library's Forest branch serves 15,000 people from a 1,760-square-foot rented storefront. The state standard for a branch library is 5,000 square feet.
It's not much better in any of the county's other three branch libraries. The Moneta library is in another mini-mall. Also rented, the 700-square-foot space must serve 8,000 people, including residents of the rapidly growing Smith Mountain Lake area.
"As the county population grows, usage of the library has increased and what people want from us has increased," says Tom Hayman, director of Bedford's public library system. "Only we might not be able to get the books they want because we've got no place to put them."
The county's main library in Bedford is expanding to meet increased demand. While renovations take place, the libarary has been moved to a nearby house. Because not all the books will fit in the house, some of the library's collection has been left behind in the old library, where some books have been damaged by water leaks and construction.
Failing wells
Roanoke County's water system is an example of what happens in a rural county that, over decades, becomes urbanized. Residents are on a mishmash of private wells, public well systems, private water companies and public water supplied through water lines.
It used to be that developers would set up a water company or a homeowners' group to take care of the private water system built to serve a subdivision. But some groups were better at maintaining their systems than others. So there are water systems in varying conditions, for which the county has taken responsibility over the years.
"So we'll always be seeing expenses from those for replacement and those type of things," says Gary Robertson, director of utilities for the county.
Poor water systems pressure the county to extend utilities to take their place.
The county has made private well systems more expensive for developers. In the 1980s, an ordinance was added requiring that water capacity for fire protection be available if water and sewer are provided, making it more costly to put in isolated water systems that serve only individual developments.
Zoning encourages public utilities when available; if builders use public water and sewer, they're allowed smaller lots.
But Robertson doesn't want decisions on where to put water and sewer being used in place of planning.
"I try not to use utilities as a zoning mechanism," he says. "I don't want to be the person who says you can't develop out here because you can't provide 200 gallons a minute. I don't think that's our authority."
Paperwork runneth over
Land deed filings at the Bedford County Circuit Court increased by almost 50 percent over five years - from 9,947 deeds filed in 1988 to 14,798 in 1993.
Law and chancery cases, wills, marriage licenses and game license permits processed by the clerk's office also all rose dramatically over the same period.
To keep up, the clerk's office added employees and opened a second counter in what was the commissioner of revenue's office. The commissioner's office then moved across the street into the county's new administration building.
The courthouse will undergo a $5.1 million renovation over the next two years to correct many of the problems brought about by the crowded courts.
"We need a separate office to probate wills," Circuit Court Clerk Carol Black says. "When we probate, it's out on the floor.
"Probate is a private family affair and it shouldn't be exposed to the public."
More fun and games
Five years ago, the Franklin County Department of Parks and Recreation sponsored about 45 youth basketball teams. This year, there are 85.
On a typical Saturday afternoon during basketball season, the department holds 42 games in five school gyms. Teams play one-hour games all day, one after the other. Their weekly practice times have decreased because there aren't enough places practice places to meet the demand.
"We just can't build enough facilities to keep up" with growth, says Franklin County's director of parks and recreation, Neil Sigmon. "We just have to start our seasons earlier and end later and pray it doesn't rain or snow."
Reservations for Franklin County Recreational Park's two picnic shelters doubled over the past five years and a new park, Waid Recreational Area, is being built to handle overflow.
Franklin also is in the early stages of setting up another park on a 37-acre peninsula of state-owned land jutting into Smith Mountain Lake. It will be the county's third.
by CNB