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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 26, 1995                   TAG: 9504260022
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JIM MARCHMAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLEASE, NORTH CAROLINA, ANNEX US

POOR Sen. John Warner! The pressure from those true believers in his party who look to Oliver North as God's anointed player of the role of John the Baptist in the Second Coming, and who blame Warner for everything from the lack of rain to their own stupidity, must be getting to him.

Virginia's one-time most respected statesman has now become so addled that in his state of mental despair he succumbed to Roanoke's paranoia. This once proud Republican whose party isn't supposed to believe in handouts and welfare is now kneeling at the trough of congressional pork to give poor Roanoke the one and only thing local leaders think they need for their city to become big, rich and famous - another interstate highway (April 13 article, ``Roanoke's I-73 hopes boosted'').

Just think: With two interstates, Roanoke can join the ranks of great cities like Wytheville as the home of a major highway intersection.

Of course, if having two big roads doesn't do the trick, perhaps Vinton's Richard Cranwell, majority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates, can promise Roanoke its own four-year state university in order to win his own upcoming political battle. Surely, that will work just like it has for those huge cities of Blacksburg and Farmville. Perhaps what Roanoke really needs to do is change its name to Charlotte and everyone will be satisfied.

But let's start with that interstate. Never mind that no driver with two-cents worth of brains is going to drive 100 miles out of the way to get from Bluefield to Winston-Salem when North Carolina has already built the interchange to connect Interstate 77 to a stretch of U.S. 52, which was built to interstate standards years ago.

Who cares if, to make Roanoke happy, we may have to pave over Glen Lyn, Pembroke and half of Narrows. All that matters is that someone in Roanoke wants to cut the driving time to Greensboro by 15 minutes. And when it's all done, what does Roanoke gain besides an easier way for its citizens to get to the Greensboro airport where prices are lower and schedules are better? Oh well, once USAir goes under, Roanoke won't really need its new airport anyway, and maybe there are lots of folks in Greensboro who just can't wait for a quicker trip to the Mill Mountain Zoo.

The newspaper said that North Carolina has a potful of highway money and plans to go ahead with its desired route, no matter what Virginia does. How dare we let our neighbor to the south keep doing things like that!

Why is it that North Carolina is always able to plan ahead and save the money when we can't? Why can North Carolina afford to pave its roads before the shopping and industrial centers are built, and we in Virginia have to wait for a traffic count? Why can North Carolina pay more per student for higher education than Virginia can? Maybe it's North Carolina's taxes that are too high - not ours. And North Carolina doesn't even have a lottery for its governor to play politics with!

Hey! I think I have the answer. Let's get Warner to redraw the state border so Roanoke becomes part of North Carolina. That could save us all millions in road costs.

Jim Marchman, of Blacksburg, is a professor of aerospace and ocean engineering at Virginia Tech.

by CNB