Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 14, 1995 TAG: 9506140064
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
He once spotted a mistaken payment of $420 for six nuts and bolts - part of the bill for repairs to a garbage truck. The county got a refund after closer examination revealed the cost of the nuts and bolts should have been $4.20.
But Timberlake's failing eyesight, his battle with diabetes that caused him to lose half of both feet, and several strokes have slowed him down. He's not able to doggedly question the bills anymore.
"I'm going to hang it up. ... 16 years is long enough," Timberlake said Monday. "I can't see ... it's frustrating, it's frustrating.
"As long as I could see, I enjoyed the meetings and the people," Timberlake said. "In 16 years I haven't had 16 calls bashing me. ... I've been very fortunate."
Timberlake, 73, also is bothered that the strokes have slowed his speech and made it difficult for him to get his point across. He knows what he wants to say but it won't come out fast enough to suit him and sometimes others.
"A stroke is a mean varmint," he said.
But give him the time to formulate his thoughts or a nudge with the word that's on the tip of his tongue and it's apparent the Central District supervisor is still sharp mentally.
When he joined the Board of Supervisors in 1979, Timberlake had retired from his hardware business.
"He didn't mix business with politics," his wife, Dot Timberlake, said.
Hardee's now sits on the site that was his business.
The problems facing Giles County 16 years ago were minor. Timberlake recalls no pressing needs.
"We didn't have these things that are going on now," he said.
Since then, the board has faced myriad issues that larger counties also are wrestling with: economic development, tougher landfill regulations, annexation and the occasional mention of consolidating schools.
Through it all, Timberlake said, he was truly an independent thinker and politician.
"I don't promise anybody anything and I don't owe them anything."
He laughs when he says that some residents think supervisors make a big salary.
"We got $3,000 a year and the chairman got ... $50 a month more."
Timberlake's $250 monthly salary is about $203 after deductions.
Timberlake says he was in the hospital when the supervisor salary issue came up during recent budget discussions.
"They slipped $42.50 a year by me," as an increase, he grins.
Timberlake says he wants to complete his term, which ends in December, if his health allows.
W.R. Johnston Jr., a Giles High School teacher, and Frank T. "Timmy" Brown are running for Timberlake's Central District seat.
"I expect as soon as I find out whose been elected, I'll turn it over to him or at least have him at the meetings. He might find out that he didn't apply for the job" he ends up with.
"It's going to be a shocker," is all Timberlake will say when asked what his replacement might expect to face. "The things you think you can do, you mess up on them - not through your own fault" but because the county is facing so many different needs with five different supervisors having five different ideas on how best to address them.
"I just decided it's time for me to get get out - past time. The few months I've got or the years or whatever it is, I'd like to have more time to myself."
Timberlake is looking forward to spending more time with his wife, their three grown daughters and five grandchildren.
"I expect I'll just stay here and have a little peace in the valley for myself."
by CNB