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

DATE: TUESDAY, August 29, 1995                   TAG: 9508290077
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUNTY MAY GET RUSCO IN ITS PARK

County officials and Rusco's president, Jim Brock, would not confirm the move Monday to the 179-acre industrial tract in Glenvar.

"You'll find out tomorrow," Brock said. County officials have scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. at the park, west of Salem on U.S. 11/460.

The window and door manufacturer, which employs about 80, has to move. Its location in the Blue Ridge Industrial Park is in the path of the Peters Creek Road extension.

Roanoke County Supervisor Bob Johnson said he wanted to make it clear that Rusco's impending move was not an effort by the county to steal a business from the city.

"We did not engineer that park to attract industry out of the city's industrial park. But they were considering moving out of the state. So we said to them,`What would it take for you to stay in the valley?''' Johnson said. "We've invested an awful lot of money in" the park.

Valley Techpark, which the county began developing last year, has become a money pit for local, state and federal governments.

Roanoke County paid $800,000 for most of the site in 1990. It was part of a deal with Allied Signal Inc., which planned to build an automobile disc brake factory. But a recession cut demand for auto parts and Allied Signal backed out, leaving the county with that tract plus 17 acres the company had purchased.

Also as part of the deal, the county installed $600,000 worth of water and sewer lines. But Brian Duncan, assistant director of economic development for the county, said those lines were necessary as part of the Spring Hollow Reservoir construction.

Since then, the county has committed to spending $1 million for roads, signs and a traffic signal.

The state chipped in a $450,000 industrial access bond for road and interstate improvements. Last year, the federal government approved $150,000 for the park.

Valley Techpark has 110 buildable acres, which are divided into nine lots.

"We've lost three years of tax revenue. But we couldn't help that. When life deals you lemons, you make lemonade," Johnson said. "I think we'll have some more announcements soon."