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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995                   TAG: 9506290038
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN SALEM, A PATIENT PUBLIC

To be sure, Salem is a place, too - part county seat and part college town, a suburb older than the urban core to its east and since the '60s an independent city in its own right.

But Salem is something more, or else, as well. Salem does things differently, which perhaps is what people mean when they call it a state of mind. If you're inclined to disagree, consider the (presumably) soon-to-be-opened Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium.

The 6,000-seat stadium will by all accounts be a wonderful facility, expandable to 12,000 seats if desired in the future, with good parking and a fine view of the mountains beyond the outfield fences. Though located in Salem, it clearly will be a regional asset.

Consideration might have been given to making it a regional project, but that's not the way things work in the Roanoke Valley, especially in Salem. Salem provides excellent services for its residents, thank you, and if those services include an extraordinary array of sports and recreational facilities, well, no one has been heard to complain.

Anyway, something had to be done about 67-year-old Salem Municipal Field, or minor-league baseball would depart the Roanoke Valley.

Salem voters agreed. Only about one in five of those who attend Avalanche (erstwhile Buccaneers) games are actually from Salem, yet Salemites voted 6-1 in an advisory referendum last summer in favor of the city's building the new stadium.

That level of agreement, even in so homogeneous and sports-minded a community, was impressive. But the true measure of Salem's different-ness has come in response to developments since then.

One development: The estimated cost of the venture zoomed from $5 million to $10 million. On a per-capita basis, it's as if a $20 million price tag on a Roanoke city project doubled to $40 million in the course of less than a year.

Another development: The opening date for the new stadium has been steadily pushed back. When it clearly wouldn't be ready near the start of the baseball season, the date was pushed back to June 20, the beginning of the second half of the Carolina League's split-season schedule. When that proved too optimistic, the date was pushed back to July 25, where it stands at the moment.

Escalating costs and construction delays are, of course, common occurrences. What's amazing is the public outcry in Salem - or, more precisely, lack of same.

If this had been Roanoke County, the project by now might have been scaled back or scrapped; indeed, that's more or less what's happening with the proposed Northside High School gym. If it had been Roanoke city, the project probably would have proceeded but only after irate taxpayers had stormed City Council to question the integrity of all involved and their continuing place on the municipal payroll.

Not so in Salem. The Salem state of mind, apparently, is one of forbearance, patience and confidence. Salemites know the ballpark will open soon enough; and when it does, it will be a superb facility. So what if, meanwhile, time seems to pass in slow motion? It does, too, in the sport to be played in the stadium.