Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150042
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Twenty-five residents told the Montgomery Board of Supervisors and state Transportation Department officials Monday why their rural roads should be on the priority list for paving and repairs or should be adopted into the state system in the first place.
"After listening to where the dollars are going, you people need to look around and see there's another part to the county than Blacksburg," said Wayne Cox of Piney Woods Road in southwest Montgomery.
Nine of the comments involved priorities already on the 16-road list proposed for the state's 1995-96 road repair budget, which begins July 1. The remainder involved complaints - some going back decades - that will be considered this summer when the county holds a public hearing on revising the state's six-year improvement plan for secondary roads.
After hearing the comments, the supervisors adopted the priority list as presented, with a widening for Prices Fork Road at the top and improvements for Coal Hollow Road at the bottom. The "bluffs," a notoriously narrow passage of North Fork Road between Elliston and Interstate 81, is ranked eighth. The $90,000 widening project should be advertised for bids in the next several months.
Eight of the 16 priorities for this year through 2000 are in rural areas near Blacksburg, including Prices Fork, McCoy and Craigs Creek. Three more are in Walton, two each are in Elliston-Lafayette and Rogers and one is in Alleghany Springs.
The problem is the Transportation Department gets about $1.6 million a year for rural-road improvements, enough for three to four miles of paving, said resident engineer Dan Brugh. But the county has 125 miles of unpaved road; about 100 miles of that needs to be paved and upgraded.
"You say 'yes' to 18 to 20 miles in the six-year plan, you're saying 'no' to another 100 miles," Brugh said.
In other business Monday, the board:
Seemed divided on two major spending initiatives in the county's $75.8 million, 1995-96 budget, which is $3.5 million out of balance. The $140,000 county employees salary initiative would give all workers a 5 percent boost to make Montgomery salaries more competitive with surrounding locales. That would be on top of a 5 percent average merit-pay increase for most county employees.
The actual salary cost increase for the merit raises would be 2.64 percent, because employees would become eligible to receive it only on the date of their hiring, not the beginning of the budget year. That makes for a total salary cost increase of 7.64 percent next year. At least four supervisors favored some form of competitiveness raise. But Ira Long said he wouldn't support it if it didn't do more for the lowest-paid workers.
The second initiative, $402,000 to consolidate dozens of trash collection sites into seven fenced sites with attendants, also appeared to be in trouble. One supervisor said he wouldn't raise taxes to support it. Another said he would support it unless there were two more sites in his rural district. Others suggested simply locking the sites at night and not staffing them during the day. Budget talks will continue at 6:30 tonight at the county courthouse. A budget public hearing has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. March 29 at Christiansburg High School.
Heard that the county staff had settled the claim for weather-related damage that closed the Mid-County Park Pool last year. The insurance carrier settled for $484,081, nearly twice what County Administrator Betty Thomas first estimated it would cost to repair the pool. Bids on the pool will be issued soon with the goal of starting construction in April, she said.
Reaffirmed its support of the U.S. 460 bypass connector, also known as Alternative 3A, as Montgomery's top transportation priority. But the board delayed possibly reconsidering its year-old position in favor of a proposed Interstate 73 corridor passing through the county.
by CNB