Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 23, 1995 TAG: 9508230045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: B. LYNN WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Long
So many people from Virginia Heights paraded to the mike after signing up to comment, that Roanoke's William Hubard, acting chairman of the commission, quipped: "Did anybody stay home?"
Roars and a thunderous ovation followed Hubard's comment, as community members shouted they were all present.
Carrying orange placards saying "NO NO NO ANNEXATION," which audience members waved frequently at the commission, representatives from most of the subdivisions and neighborhoods included in the annexation plan weighed in with their opinions.
At one point, Hubard asked the Virginia Heights delegation to stand and some 70 residents rose to their feet. Virginia Heights has an estimated population of 76.
Hubard then read a roll call of neighborhoods to be annexed: Ingram Village, Lilly Fair, Hidden Meadows, Fairview Acres, Lilly Haven, Mason Court, and Robin Hood Park. All had representatives there.
Asked if anyone was there in favor of annexation, one man stood up. He did not speak.
Earlier in the day, though, about 20 residents heard Pearisburg Mayor John H. Givens and Town Manager Ken Vittum make their case for annexing an additional 2.66 square miles. Water rates would decrease, they said, because costs would be shared among more citizens. They want the increased revenues from a wider tax base and more land for development.
There is some land in town, Vittum said, but "it has sinkholes, or steep slopes and is otherwise unsuitable for development."
For its part, the town would provide street maintenance and leaf pick-up to the new areas, and eventually, sewer service.
The town also would provide better planning services.
Givens and Vittum spent several hours in front of the commission Monday morning and afternoon as the commission listened. County Administrator Janet Tuckwiller also spoke for more than an hour.
At the evening hearing, a chance for public comment on the issue, Ingram Village's Edwin Robertson complained that "Pearisburg hasn't gotten the message" - the Federal government wants to cut taxes, not increase them. As the audience cheered, Robertson said the county should let the people vote on the issue.
Bob Ballard of Ingram Village told commissioners much of his land scheduled to be annexed is mountain land. Another nearby resident, Charles R. Johnston concurred with Ballard, declaring that his land was so steep, "part of it a billy goat couldn't go over."
Why would the town want to annex it? he asked.
Pete Cooper and Wayne Gentry, who reside near Hidden Meadows, said they would favor annexation if the town would upgrade their road to state standards and maintain it. They investigated the cost for doing it themselves, and found it would cost $30,000. They said the town has refused to do this, because their homes are too far away to receive services.
Lilly Fair resident Robert Gautier, a frequent visitor to Town Council and Board of Supervisors meetings in recent months, told commissioners that he had asked both bodies to explain what he will get from annexation. The town told him that he would receive a streetlight, he said.
"I don't want a streetlight if it's going to cost me $600 [his taxes under annexation]," Gautier explained, as the audience laughed.
Greg Spangler of Roanoke, an absentee landowner, has some of the most desirable land in the Lilly Haven/Fairview Acres area. But he told commissioners his land will never be developed.
Spangler said the property is presently willed to a conservation group and that he and his wife are investigating placing a conservation easement on the sizable tract.
J.W. Wood, spokesman for Virginia Heights, showed commission members a large exhibit of tax maps and numbered photos that match vacant land and buildings in the town. He said that of 111 acres in the business zone, 52 acres - or 47 percent - remain empty.
Wood, an architect, said that recent budgets showed expenditures in the town of Pearisburg exceeded revenues. And that the town would still be running a deficit for 1995-96, if it wasn't for $197,000 in bond money infused, to prevent a shortfall of $130,000. Wood reminded commissioners of past annexation promises still waiting to be fulfilled.
He cited minutes of a Town Council meeting Jun. 23, 1993 where Vittum told them future budgets would be a problem without additional revenues. Shortly after that, Wood believes, annexation was born.
Carolyn Painter, also from Virginia Heights, said she didn't want a $72 reduction in her water bill, if the trade-off was a tax bill of nearly $2,000 a year if annexation proceeds. "Our properties are just as sacred as Giles High School, Riverbend, and the county industrial park," Painter said, referring to properties excluded from the agreement.
Ann Webb, dubbed "Annexation Annie," presented commissioners with a scrapbook of information about the annexation. She told the commission that while Pearisburg supplies Virginia Heights water, it "runs through the pipes we paid for over 20 years" before the town assumed the system.
Robin Hood Park resident Bob Williams suggested the annexation would be "too big a burden on the townspeople" and condemned it for being negotiated behind closed doors. Eddie Kingrea, also of Robin Hood, agreed. He urged the entire agreement be rejected.
Charles Salmon of Woodland Drive derided the lack of maps provided by the town "other than those that came over on the Mayflower."
Hubard said the Commission will continue to accept written comment through Sept. 5 and present its report Nov. 15, if the schedule holds.
by CNB