Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160078
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Earlier this month, Mary Holliman, a local publisher, announced she would seek the District F nomination to run this fall for the county Board of Supervisors. On Monday, schoolteacher Mary Biggs said she would, too.
They both want the chance to run for the seat held by board Chairman Larry Linkous, who is running for the House of Delegates. So far, there is no announced Republican or independent candidate.
Montgomery Democrats will choose one of the women at their June 3 mass meeting. The Holliman-Biggs match is the only contested nomination for a supervisors race so far. District F runs from Hethwood to the northwest, including parts of Glade and Toms Creek roads and the Laurel Ridge subdivision.
Biggs, 44, has taught second grade at Harding Elementary School in Blacksburg for 17 years. She lives in the Karr Heights neighborhood of Blacksburg.
A longtime party activist and observer of county government, Biggs said she would bring a "unique perspective" to the board. "I think I have a lot to offer in planning for the future of Montgomery County," Biggs said. She is a regular at Board of Supervisors meetings and has watched the county budget process, in particular, for years.
"I understand what is involved with this job and what it can encompass," she said. Dealing with the school budget and the link between education and economic development is part of the job, but not all, she said.
Land-use issues, for instance, will be very important in coming years as Montgomery County continues to grow. "I'm very open to new ways of solving problems," she said.
Biggs said her strengths include an ability to listen to others, a willingness to do her homework, an understanding of the differences and diversity among the various parts of the county and an ability to build a consensus when faced with opposing views.
She doesn't perceive her job as a county teacher to be a drawback or a conflict of interest. For one thing, Biggs said, the Board of Supervisors appropriates money to the School Board in one block and doesn't vote directly on salaries or other education policy issues. For another, the supervisors will no longer appoint School Board members once the first elections are held this fall, Biggs said.
Biggs is the outgoing vice president of the Montgomery County Education Association, a teachers' interest group, and served as its president in 1982-83. In local politics, she's been involved with the Montgomery County Democratic Committee since 1980 and has served on the 9th District committee and State Central Democratic Committee since 1990.
Biggs, who is married to James M. York, was born in South Carolina but raised in Fairfax County. She came to Blacksburg, where her mother, Rosalie Miller, grew up, to earn an undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech. After graduation, she taught for two years in Pittsylvania County, then returned to Tech in 1975 for a graduate degree. During that time, she began teaching at Harding.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB