Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200016
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
July 3: Bern Ewert, Roanoke's city manager since 1978, announces his resignation to take charge of a proposed foundation to work for the development of a tourist attraction that would include a Roanoke River scenic parkway, regional zoo and steam train. His resignation is effective Aug. 2.
July 8:The Salvation Army's mobile soup kitchen, which, for three years has provided hot lunches to the homeless and needy, dispenses its last meal at the corner of Third Street, east of Campbell and Church avenues.
City merchants say the kitchen creates problems, but Salvation Army officials say they will continue a feeding program at the Salem Avenue Southwest facility.
July 10: A regional clinic providing free tests showing whether someone has been exposed to the AIDS virus opens at the Roanoke City Health Department. One of four such facilities in Virginia, the clinic was set up so that homosexuals or people in other high-risk AIDS groups won't donate blood merely to be tested for AIDS antibodies. The clinic also provides counseling and education for blood donors who have tested positively for such antibodies.
July 12: A patron criticizes a display of Civil War artifacts and a Confederate flag in a case near the Virginia Room at the main Roanoke Public Library. The patron says the display, which has been there for more than 20 years, symbolizes racial brutality and oppression.
Library officials choose to leave the display, saying it will be removed at some point ``as a part of normal library routine'' for altering displays.
``Removing the display immediately,'' said Librarian Al Whitelock, would be ``bordering on censorship.''
July 17: Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor cuts the ribbon officially opening the $100 million Valley View Mall. Fifty-thousand people are expected to visit the mall on the first day, and the city expects to collect $2.5 million in taxes during the first year.
During the day, Fink's Jewelers sells a Rolex watch costing $2,600.
July 22: Julian Stanley Wise, founder of the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew, the world's first volunteer rescue squad, dies at 85 in Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem after a lengthy illness. Wise was motivated to start the squad when he witnessed two men being swept to their deaths in the Roanoke River when he was 9. In addition to being squad captain for 30 years, Wise was squad president, a charter member of the International Rescue and First Aid Association and organizer and president of the Virginia Association of Volunteer Squads.
25 years ago
July 8: The Roanoke Valley Regional Health Services Planning Council recommends Roanoke Memorial Hospital develop a regional radiation therapy service for treating cancer patients in a five-county area near Roanoke. The council also suggests Lewis-Gale and Community hospitals defer plans to add cobalt equipment and develop radiation therapy centers.
July 12: Plans for TRUST, the Roanoke Valley Student Trouble Center, are announced. In addition to a 24-hour hot line for teens, the center will provide information on all kinds of crises confronting students: birth control, the draft, drugs, family relations and psychological and religious problems.
July 14:The Roanoke School Board approves new school desegregation plans with minimum discussion. The federal government's proposal for integrating high schools receives the board's unanimous approval, but changes in the junior high and elementary plans are opposed by Dr. Wendell Butler, the board's newest member and only black.
The plans include turning all-black Lucy Addison High School into an educational center; making six junior high schools 25 percent black; closing all-black Booker T. Washington Junior High and leaving nine elementary schools all-white, two all-black and pairing two. School Superintendent Roy A. Alcorn also recommends turning Booker T. Washington into a central administration office.
July 16 : The Roanoke School Board adopts an "impartial, just and equitable to all personnel" plan of integrating the city's 900 teachers. Under the plan, about 80 black teachers and other professionals will be reassigned to other schools.
50 years ago
July 4: Fifteen additional prisoners of war are sent to a Salem camp to help Roanoke County farmers harvest crops. The camp already had 20 POWs assigned there, but a War Manpower Commission official said about 100 POWs would be needed to harvest crops in Botetourt and Roanoke counties.
July 19: The Roanoke Women's Club submits a plan to the war memorials committee to develop Mill Mountain into a park and build an appropriate memorial on top of the mountain.
July 31: U.S. Representative Clifton A. Woodrum of Roanoke announces he will not seek re-election to the House and will retire on or before his term ends in January 1947. He will enter private business.
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