ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601150011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: New River Journal
DATELINE: CHECK
SOURCE: ELIZABETH OBENSHAIN
Sitting at the window of an old farmhouse on a winding road heading nowhere, I watch the snow blow by, settling on tree branches or drifting down to obscure the pasture below.
A quiet day of enforced and welcome peace.
A time also to ponder what 1996 will bring.
I'm neither wise nor foolish enough to predict the future, but I can anticipate some issues that will make headlines this year:
The "smart" road: The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors faces a decision sometime this year guaranteed to infuriate large numbers of its constituents no matter which way its members lean. The board must decide whether to allow the $103 million road, seven years in the planning, to cut through a county district designed to protect significant farming and forest land in one of the county's most rural and beautiful areas. A new member of the board, Mary Biggs, could be the swing vote and may find this - one of her first major votes on the board - one of her hardest.
School funding and teacher raises: For the first time this year, the Montgomery County School Board has four elected members, who owe no allegiance to the Board of Supervisors, which used to appointed all board members. Look for the School Board's new independence to increase the tension between the two bodies in their annual wrestling match over school funding vs. county taxes.
School Superintendent Herman Bartlett has laid the foundation for a struggle this year by asking for $4 million in new county funds for the schools. In comparison, the schools received an increase of $800,000 from the county last year.
Depending on new revenues and budget shuffling, the supervisors could have to increase the real-estate tax rate by 18 cents to raise the $4 million. (A 1-cent increase in the county's tax rate will produce $218,000 next year, according to county finance officials.) The new money would pay for 7 percent raises for school employees as well as new programs in a budget that would total $53 million, up 12 percent from the current year.
Virginia Tech: For the first time in six years, Tech can look toward the General Assembly's opening with more hope than dread. After budget cuts that dropped Virginia to 42nd in the nation in state support for higher education, Virginia Tech hopes to see state money for faculty raises, new programs and building. At the same time it is successfully pursuing a $250 million campaign to boost the university's private endowment for scholarships, chaired faculty posts, and other programs. But the university also faces some unsettling issues at home:
a. Campus justice: A former freshman has filed an $8.3 million civil suit in an alleged rape by a Tech football player and his subsequent campus discipline. The conflicting versions of what happened in a dorm room one September night, the complicating factor of alcohol, and the added pressures of campus and athletic politics make this a legally complex and emotionally explosive issue for the university and the young people involved.
b. Beyond restructuring: The College of Education is not giving up its college status without a fight - raising issues on campus not just about the college's future but about what role the faculty should play when the administration is confronting major decisions.
c. There are happier notes for Tech, though, in the year ahead. Its basketball team may bring the fun and instant fame of having a winning team in national playoffs. When the Hokies make it to the NCAA playoffs this year, none of us can predict whether they will make it to the Sweet 16 or even Final Four. But the team is hands-down favorite for "Miss Congeniality" for the sheer nice-guy quality of the players and their generous team spirit.
That's a bit of it for '96. I won't even mention such momentous events as the upcoming Olympic presidential mudwrestling event that we'll see this spring and summer.
Watch those headlines. It could be a heckuva year.
Elizabeth Obenshain is The Roanoke Times' New River editor.|
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB