Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Stressing his financial know-how and experience, the 59-year-old Glenvar resident said he plans to seek the Republican nomination for the Catawba seat on the county Board of Supervisors. After a falling-out with the GOP, incumbent Ed Kohinke decided not to seek re-election.
"The Catawba District has a history of being the lost child of Roanoke County," Crouse said in a telephone interview. "I'd like to turn that around."
Crouse's campaign will focus on tax assessments he says are too high and government services he says are too low.
"We have suffered under the last three supervisors. Catawba pays the highest taxes of the county's five districts and gets the fewest services," he said. "The schools in the Glenvar area are in a state of disrepair, and the roads are disastrous."
Until he retired in 1991, Crouse was president of Houston Motor Express, a family-owned trucking company that has a terminal in Montgomery County. From 1959-73, he worked for the Seattle-based Boeing Co.
The skills he acquired through these jobs would serve his district - and the county - well, Crouse said.
"I have a strong background in business. I plan to help the economic development director. I know these companies, these people," he said. "I can knock on their doors and say, `Look what we have to offer.'''
Crouse never has held political office, although he has run before.
In 1991, he challenged Wayne Compton for commissioner of revenue. Crouse lost, receiving 37 percent of the votes, amid allegations that he failed to pay Roanoke County personal property taxes on a motor home and a motor boat in the late 1980s.
After the election, Crouse successfully argued in court that the tax bills sent by Compton's office were improper because the property was not based in the county. For most of the years in question, the motor home and boat were stored at the Crouses' weekend home in Craig County, he said. The tax dispute was settled when Circuit Judge G.O. Clemens agreed that Roanoke County had insufficient authority to levy the taxes.
With that controversy behind him, Crouse is confident about the outcome of this campaign.
"I've was born in the Catawba District," he said. "These folks know me well."
To secure the GOP's support, Crouse will have to compete against party newcomer Warren Brown Jr. at the Republicans' mass meeting on May 20.
An independent candidate, Douglas Chandler Graham, and Democrat Spike Harrison also have declared their intention to run in the November election.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB