ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 24, 1996 TAG: 9601240025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Library boosters in the Shawsville area are letting their money do the talking.
And the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors is listening - with interest.
Anonymous library supporters have pledged 2.6 acres near Shawsville Elementary School and $450,000 to launch an effort to build a new library for the Shawsville-Elliston area, said David McCrumb, a Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library Board of Trustees member.
McCrumb briefed the Board of Supervisors Monday on the "growing swell" of support for a library. Library supporters note that Shawsville, Elliston and Ironto-area residents live many miles and minutes from the nearest branch libraries in Christiansburg and Blacksburg.
Afterward, the board passed a largely symbolic resolution saying it "enthusiastically supports commitment to this project." The resolution echoed one passed last week by the Library Board.
The county's Capital Improvements Program Committee last week recommended spending $25,000 after July 1 to study a Shawsville branch proposal. The supervisors next month will begin considering a 1996-97 budget that contains that and eight other projects in a $500,000 capital-improvements budget.
McCrumb, a Shawsville resident, said aside from the need for library services for children and others, there's a need for public meeting space that could be included in the new library. He said three potential donors have pledged $450,000 to the project, roughly one-third of the $1.1 million to $1.5 million estimated cost of a new branch library. McCrumb said library supporters hope to gain additional pledges from private donors.
Also, two of four landowners of the site near Shawsville Elementary have pledged to donate their property to the cause. The other two were awaiting some sign of interest from the county, McCrumb said.
At least one issue will require more study, supervisors said. The proposed site is either in or on the edge of the 100-year flood plain of the South Fork of the Roanoke River. Though the site could be raised out of the flood plain by trucking in fill, that could run afoul of flood-control restrictions, depending on the precise location of the site, said County Attorney Roy Thorpe.
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