Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 26, 1995 TAG: 9506260011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The most puzzling feature is that they are spending $4.3 million of taxpayers' money for this property, not contingent on the necessary rezoning. Sounds like a locked-in deal from start to finish. Done silently and efficiently. There are sacrificial lambs - the adjoining landowners who are the last to know in a situation that impacts their lives. It became clear just how our system works.
I don't see this just as a loss to adjoining landowners, but more a loss to the entire county. For, by these men's decision, the county's landscape will be damaged forever.
They speak of what we are gaining, but I'm concerned with what we are losing. First, a county that has been blessed by God's beauty - made to look like every urban area across our country with whatever individuality we had wiped out in this quest for progress. This property, in particular, is pure Botetourt heartland.
Other buyers expressed interest, for projects that would have less environmental impact, but were not given an option to bid. I feel these are railroad tactics.
PATRICIA MANKIN FINCASTLE
Private club adds to area's pleasures
WITH REFERENCE to the tax-law changes and private dining clubs in your Jefferson Club article (June 14 Business section article, ``Jefferson Club waives fee in bid for more members''):
I would hope that I would entertain or be entertained more because a person wanted to see me or I them than for tax implications. If that is the only criterion, then please don't call me.
As for business entertaining, I feel the Jefferson Club is far more discreet and provides better ambience, location and food than shouting to be heard in a burger joint or over a table in the Market Building where everyone knows your business before you're through. I enjoy those places as well, but there is a time and place for all things. And don't waste your time taking me to a golf club because I don't play!
In addition, it's great to go where the staff know you, where nothing is too much trouble, including a birthday cake, and if you want to spend three hours having dinner with friends, that's OK, too. You can have a beautiful lunch at the Jefferson Club, including beverage, tax and tip for well under $10!
In the time we have belonged to the Jefferson Club, we have found it to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of our move to Roanoke. So don't knock it until you've tried it.
RUTH L. BROWN ROANOKE
Praise too faint for Hootie concert
I STOOD on the front row at the Salem Civic Center on June 14 with about 7,000 others waiting for some special guests. The lights went down, and the crowd began to scream. Yes, it was Hootie & The Blowfish - finally!
Screaming went on for two hours, along with lots of singing. The more they played, the better it got. They played all their greatest hits. Their sound was great, and nobody could sit still. When they tried to leave, the crowd somehow got them to come back for three encores. It was by far the best concert I have ever been to.
That is the concert I went to, but I'm not sure it's where staff writer Mark Morrison was. Maybe in the Civic Center lobby! But he wasn't at the Hootie concert with the rest of us. This concert was more than pretty good - it was excellent. The headline on his June 16 review was right, ``Salem only wanted to be with Hootie.'' Morrison needs to wake up.
ANGELA BOOTH ROANOKE
College will spotlight fathers
I READ with interest your June 18 Father's Day editorial, ``Endangered, but not extinct.'' Like you, I have been alarmed by the voice of David Blankenhorn in his book ``Fatherless America.'' You wondered about what might be done.
At Roanoke College, students in the honors program are sponsoring a symposium on ``Fatherless America'' on Oct. 11. Blankenhorn will be at Roanoke College on Oct. 12 to speak with a variety of groups and to serve as our keynote speaker at the evening program. We hope this will be a catalyst for discussion about this urgent social issue in our society.
As an interesting footnote, he's a graduate of Andrew Lewis High School, which contributed to his willingness to schedule Roanoke College on his national tour.
Thanks again for your words of concern for fathers.
R. PAUL HENRICKSON Chaplain of Roanoke College SALEM
Good kids go to raves
I HAVE stood by passively as your newspaper and letter writers have put down raves. Have these people or anyone they know ever attended a rave? My 17-year-old daughter has been going for eight months.
She is a high-school graduate, doesn't dress odd, has no tattoos, doesn't have a shaved head or purple hair, and isn't a drug-user. She has a full-time job, and is the kind of kid any parent would be proud of. She obeys her parents and respects herself, as do many of her friends who also attend raves. But these aren't the kind of people who would make a good story, so they weren't the focus in your May 28 Extra section article (``Rave'').
At any social event - for juveniles or adults - there are those who act outrageous. But from what I know, these are the minority.
As for Don Assaid's June 13 letter (``No raves for a decadent culture''), shame on him for not getting all the facts, and for believing everything he reads in the newspaper.
TINA L. JACKSON ROANOKE
Junk doesn't help the city's image
IN YOUR June 18 newspaper, there was an article about people having junk in their yards (``Inspectors try to rid Roanoke of junky yards'').
What about the city's junk yard? When you come off Orange Avenue to go north onto Interstate 581, the city has a junk yard with big yellow buses and a whole lot more. It's no wonder Roanoke can't get new business to settle here.
LARRY WOOLDRIDGE ROANOKE
Mike Brown isn't the only conservative
SOMEONE needs to tell the other side as opposed to what Rick Wiita expressed in his June 19 letter to the editor (``Brown will upgrade law-enforcement'') regarding Mike Brown, a candidate for sheriff.
Wiita refers to Brown as ``the conservative'' candidate. I believe I can safely say that all candidates in the race are conservatives. Just because one is a Republican doesn't make him ``the conservative.''
Wiita lists a number of things he says Brown will do, but brushed over the part about Brown's desire to form uniformed citizen posses, and leaves out that he would have the federal government train our deputies. Do we really need a federal-style bureaucracy in our sheriff's department?
He also failed to mention Brown's recent move into Bedford County; that he didn't register to vote here until January; his giving away of an automatic military-assault weapon as a fund-raising event's door prize; that many of his campaign signs are illegally in state-highway rights of way; and all the out-of-state money he has raised to finance his campaign.
I'm considering candidate Doug Maynard for sheriff - a true conservative and a fine man. I know he has very well-rounded law-enforcement and management experience that will help Bedford County deal with its growth and the public-safety issues that come with growth. I will not, as Wiita did for Brown, list what Maynard would do as sheriff. I'll leave it to him to tell the people about that.
We should hold candidates responsible for what they promise, not for what someone else advertises about their proposals.
ROBIN JACKSON LYNCHBURG
by CNB