Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511200017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY AND LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The site surfaced when Margaret Smith, a neighbor and friend of the landowner, urged the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors Wednesday to choose another piece of land.
That's because, Smith said, Ronald Salmons and his family have already given up enough of their Riner farm for county schools. In 1938 and 1953, the county acquired land from Salmons' grandparents to build the present joint high-middle school and elementary school in Riner.
"Is it not time to seek land from someone else?" Smith said.
Building a new Riner elementary school is the county's top priority to deal with overburdened classrooms. In September, the Board of Supervisors committed $1.3 million to buy land and pay for engineering and design of the new school. It also agreed to borrow up to $8 million next year to build the school.
Salmons and his wife attended the meeting Wednesday but did not speak. "She's kind of like us, she hates to see the area built up," Salmons said later of his friend's reasons for speaking out.
Smith raised safety concerns - she said Virginia 8 in front of the existing schools already is overburdened - and said if the county condemned another 50 acres of the Salmons' property, it would hurt his ability to farm the remaining land.
Salmons raises cattle on 156 acres west of the existing high school and the Auburn Acres subdivision.
The Board of Supervisors took no action Wednesday. Since before the spring, the supervisors and the county School Board have been discussing the possible school site, but always behind closed doors.
Two supervisors and two School Board members had been meeting as a joint school-site committee, but they haven't met in nearly two months, said Supervisor Henry Jablonski.
The county has made no formal effort to take the Salmons property. "It's just working on things," Jablonski said of the progress so far. According to an Oct. 30 report given the School Board, that work includes aerial surveying and geotechnical borings. Further, the report stated, a meeting has been held with the landowners and their attorney.
School Board Chairman Roy Vickers, another of the site-selection committee members, said he was surprised to hear that the subject was brought up in public.
"This is still in the executive session stages," Vickers said. "It's my understanding that no final agreement has been reached."
Vickers did say the land survey tests have been completed. Both Vickers and School Board member Barry Worth said they've left all land negotiations up to county officials.
Worth said the only option the School Board is considering involves a procurement of 50 acres adjacent to the existing school. Though an elementary school does not require the full 50 acres, purchasing only part of the land would go against the long-range plans developed in the Facility Use-Space Study, which the School Board approved early this year.
Under the plan, the new Riner elementary school would be built adjacent to the current elementary school. By the year 2004, the current elementary school would be converted into a middle school. The last phase - which would not even begin until at least 15 years from now - would include a new high school on the same property.
by CNB