Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507270022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
The county Board of Supervisors bought the 169-acre tract near the intersection of Virginia 693 and 615 just outside Floyd and transferred it to the Floyd County Industrial Development Authority on June 30. The park, which cost the county $338,000, will be called the Floyd Regional Commerce Center.
County Administrator Randy Arno said he hopes the new industrial park will "put a tourniquet on all the commerce that flows out of this community."
There are no immediate plans for an industry to move onto the new tract, said Arno.
Some Floyd County residents worry about how the park will affect its neighbors.
Paul Pingel, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church across from the industrial site, says his parishioners have concerns about the new park.
"Randy has been pretty cooperative in terms of providing information, but the concern is at this point there doesn't seem to be a lot of specific planning in place. I realize that Floyd, like every other county, needs jobs. But Floyd also has a lot of resources in terms of its natural beauty and also essentially its isolation, and I wish I felt a little more comfortable about where things are going," said Pingel.
The county paid $2,000 per acre to buy the land, called the old Phlegar Farm, from Dr. and Mrs. William Houck of Clarke County after obtaining in March an option held by Mike Turman of Willis.
Pingel is worried his church might be almost completely surrounded by industrial buildings and heavy traffic. He's also troubled about the future of the old Phlegar cabin on the property, which dates back to 1816. The pastor also cited environmental concerns about the future of Old Field Creek, which runs through the new industrial park land.
A letter voicing these concerns and signed by several dozen Zion Church parishioners was mailed to Floyd County supervisors in late June.
A dozen people with the community group Neighbor for Neighbor met with Arno in Zion Church on May 22. Neighbor for Neighbor member Meredith McGrath said that another letter voicing similar concerns will be sent to the supervisors shortly. This letter will be sent in the name of the Floyd County Historical Society, Neighbor for Neighbor, Zion Church and possibly a school.
Kathleen Ingoldsby of the Floyd County Historical Society says she's concerned about the future of the cabin. Ingoldsby conducted a study of log structures in Floyd County in 1988 and said, "I know of only one other structure as substantial in the county that's as old" as the Phlegar cabin.
Ingoldsby said purchase of the land by the county "presents a grand opportunity" because the cabin now officially could be protected. "If care is exercised in this project, it could turn out to have real economic and cultural and historical potential," Ingoldsby said.
Arno says it all comes down to jobs. Only 14 acres remain in the county's first industrial park, and Arno said he had to turn down a feeler from a company earlier this year that needed more land.
"We got a call looking for 25 acres of raw land and we didn't have it. We want jobs - that's our motivation here, to create jobs for people who want to live and work in Floyd County, not just live in Floyd County and work somewhere else. It's almost an economic imperative that this community do this, because without it we just have no tax base. The wealth of the county is basically traveling down Route 8 and Route 221 to other jurisdictions," said Arno. Virginia 8 leads to Christiansburg, and U.S. 221 leads to Roanoke.
|ALAN KIM/Staff Paul Pingel, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church across from the industrial park, is worried about the effect industries and traffic might have on his church. He and others also are concerned about the fate of a historic cabin on the site.
by CNB