Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511060009
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-15 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WYTHEVILLE - A Blacksburg firm has been hired to make a capital needs study for the Wythe County school system.
The county School Board picked Mills, Oliver and Webb for the job last month. It also extended the contract for Superintendent James Vaught through 1999.
The School Board will hold a joint retreat with the Wythe County Board of Supervisors Nov. 29 at Doe Run Lodge in Carroll County.
Wythe County gets home page
WYTHEVILLE - Wythe County is now on the information superhighway as well as the crossroads of Interstates 81 and 77.
It has its own home page on the World Wide Web of the Internet, through the Joint Industrial Development Authority of Wythe County and the towns of Wytheville and Rural Retreat and Sprint/United Telephone.
The opening menu page, entitled "Wythe County - At the Center of It All," shows the county seal at the center of wheel spokes branching off to selection boxes that users can access at the click of a mouse. They cover location, community profiles, education, transportation and other areas. The World Wide Web address is http://www.bnt.com/wythcco/
The authority will meet once more this year, on Dec. 14, and has changed its regular meeting dates for 1996 from the fourth Thursday of each month to the third Tuesday.
It commended members John Crowgey and Richard Phillippi, whose terms are expiring, for their work on the authority.
Rural Retreat area growing
RURAL RETREAT - Although eastern Wythe County along the joint Interstate 81-77 corridor is seen as a magnet for future development, the western part of the county is drawing its share as well.
Rural Retreat Mayor Doug Humphrey said at last week's quarterly joint county governments meeting that the town had worked for years to get the infrastructure in place for development and it was now paying off. Besides some new industries in Rural Retreat in recent years, the town is now getting a new supermarket, bank and even a pizza place, he said.
Humphrey thanked the county Board of Supervisors for its accommodation on lowering the machinery and tools tax so that Klockner Pentaplast, a major new industry in the Rural Retreat Industrial Park, would not only stay but expand.
Supervisor Tom DuPuis warned that rates will be going up substantially for the Virginia Retirement System, which funds teacher retirements. "They say it's not funding itself," he said, and the increase could be as much as $1 million for Wythe County.
Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe thanked the supervisors for their $12,750 appropriation to the Wall of Honor in Wytheville.
He reported that the old town landfill should finally be closed next year with placement of an earthen cap over it, which will involve moving some 125,000 cubic yards of material. The job could be complete by midsummer.
Crewe said Wytheville residents had expressed a desire to see the town's water tank painted to resemble a colorful hot-air balloon, like those that have become a trademark for the annual summer Wytheville Chautauqua Festival. But the bids on such a paint job have been around $30,000, he said, which is more than the town can afford.
However, the Wytheville-Wythe-Bland Chamber of Commerce will head a fund-raising drive to try to raise that amount, he said.
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