Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060049
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
That would give the town a chance to regain some of the losses it suffered when the club's owners, in financial trouble, defaulted on a loan from the town's Urban Development Action Grant program.
After an hour-long closed session Tuesday, Town Council voted to authoriz\e Town Manager Tom Combiths to negotiate the terms for the sale.
Council had approved a $30,000 loan to George Penn and Howard Jenkins in mid-1993 for the restaurant and nightclub. UDAG loans are earmarked for expanding businesses.
Ellery's owners opened two years ago, but the business never took off as they expected.
The town now has a lien on the property as collateral for the loan, and could sell it at public auction. But Town Attorney Frank Terwilliger advised council that a sale also could be conducted privately.
Penn and Jenkins have consented to the private sale, which could bring in as much as $15,000. They still would not be released from their obligation to repay the balance.
The identity of the potential buyer for the property was not disclosed.
In other business, council voted to apply for a Community Improvement Block Grant of up to $25,000 to study the need for such improvements as housing rehabilitation, water and sewer line upgrading and street light repair in an area between Washington Avenue and Bertha Street.
A Community Development Block Grant of up to $500,000 will be sought from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to fund the improvements, once planning is complete.
Council approved a list of town goals for 1995, including strategies for fast response to citizen complaints, increasing the town's sewer system capacity to accommodate growth, improving roads, making the water system more efficient and reducing billing disparities, and pursuing a series of economic development goals.
The governing body passed a proclamation designating May as a month to clean the town, and included provisions for an ongoing cleanup campaign.
Mayor Andy Graham said the Pulaski Jaycees plan to start their effort to clean up a section of Dora Highway at 2 p.m. Saturday. Graham also reported that a model train display in the Raymond F. Ratcliff Museum in the town's depot building is nearly complete.
Graham said he hoped citizens would attend a town meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the T.G. Howard Community Center at 320 Altoona St. An earlier town meeting last week, the first of three such planned gatherings, drew no one from the public.
by CNB