Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995 TAG: 9506290124
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
June 4: A national City Livability Awards Program, jointly sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Philip Morris Inc., praises both Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor and his community for the Star City's planning studies, festivals, arts and cultural facilities. Roanoke wasn't one of the eight finalists for the1985 award, but many of its ideas were placed in the National Clearinghouse on the Arts as models for other cities.
June 7: Roanoke City Councilman David Bowers scorns the notion of Roanoke County becoming a city, saying: "It would not serve the best interests of the Roanoke Valley or the citizens of the county.
"We need to get rid of some of the governments we have and consolidate the valley - not create another city. What we need to do is to get together, not farther part," says Bowers, an ardent backer of valley consolidation.
June 22: Two Roanoke Valley residents are among the 20 or more people in at least four states who reported witnessing the re-entry of a satellite. What they saw was debris from a Soviet satellite launched in January 1984. William Anderson of Botetourt County was at Smith Mountain Lake and made a report to NASA.
Betty Allen of Roanoke said she saw numerous lights of varying size and brilliance, and wasn't sure what she had seen as she drove near Valley View Mall.
25 years ago
June 7-9: Roanoke's first Festival in the Park is held in Elmwood Park. Festival officials say about 55,000 people attended.
The festival featured pony rides, marionette and pet shows, concerts by the Roanoke Symphony and the Royal Kings.
Also this weekend, the new Hunting Hills Country Club is launched with a "bull roast" party. About 400 members dine and dance under huge tents that function as a substitute clubhouse. The celebration includes a golf tourney.
June 10: The Rev. Noel Taylor, the first black president of the Roanoke Ministries Conference, becomes the first black in the Roanoke's history to be elected to city council. Running on a three-man Republican ticket, he scores heavily in both the largely black districts and in all-white areas.
June 16: Roanoke County police are investigating a cross burning on the lawn of a Southwest residence, where blacks had been guests of white residents about a month earlier.
June 18: In a decision reversing one rendered by U.S. District Court Judge Ted Dalton, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejects Roanoke City's plan for school integration, directing full racial integration of all schools by the time school starts in the fall.
Roanoke, the federal appeals court says, should consider busing and other "reasonable methods" to accomplish integration.
The court orders Dalton to direct the Roanoke City School Board to have a new plan prepared by July 15.
50 years ago
June 2: James H. Moore, manager of radio station WSLS, announces plans for installing a new, modern 10,000-watt frequency modulation (FM) transmitter for the station on Poor Mountain, about 13 miles southwest of Roanoke.
The new transmitter, because of the elevation and topography of the countryside surrounding Poor Mountain, will serve not only Roanoke but also an area of nearly 34,000 square miles.
June 7: The Roanoke County Women's Club goes on record against the draft of 18-year-olds in peace-time.
June 18: A survey of several Roanoke City gasoline distributors reveals that while gas may not be exactly "overstocked," there is more of it than there was three weeks ago. One distributor reports "we have a full supply of gasoline on hand - that is regular gas. In fact, we have more gas on hand at the present time than we ever had back in 1942. The increase in supply started around the 15th of May, and we've had to get our company to hold back shipments in Richmond since all of our tanks are full."
While a spokesman for one of the principal oil companies concedes that the gas situation has greatly "eased" during the last 10 days, there was "no such thing as overstocked supplies of gasoline in Roanoke."
Such a situation, he says, is impossible under the arrangement administered by the Petroleum Administration for War. The PWA would stop shipments of gasoline to this area if there was an "overstocked" condition.
PAST TENSE is a monthly special feature compiled by Melvin E. Matthews Jr. to help readers remember past events in the Roanoke Valley. Information is gathered from past issues of the newspaper.
by CNB