ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 29, 1996 TAG: 9601290073
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
Christmas Store still shy of goal
CHRISTIANSBURG - The Montgomery County Christmas Store had raised $107,400 by mid-January.
The store has just two months left to meet its 1995 fund-raising goal of $110,000 by the time its fiscal year ends on March 31. The store will continue to pay bills for 1995 well into 1996.
Since the project began in 1982, contributions of time and money by people, organizations, churches and businesses have made dignified assistance during the holiday season possible to hundreds of low-income families.
In 1995, the Christmas Store served 1,368 families.
Contributions are tax-deductible and can be sent to P.O. Box 221, Blacksburg, Va. 24063.
Annexation a threat to plant expansion
RURAL RETREAT - An industrial expansion that was supposed to add 100 jobs in Wythe County may be endangered by annexation plans by Rural Retreat.
Klockner Pentaplast, which has a plant just outside of town that manufactures plastic film for the pharmaceutical, food and print industries, wanted to double its size with a $6 million, 90,000-square-foot addition.
But its officials said it could only afford to do so if Wythe County would lower its machinery and tools tax.
Last October, the county Board of Supervisors voted to lower that tax from $12.50 to $9.50 per $1,000 assessed valuation, effective in 1997 when the expansion with its additional $20 million worth of machinery and tools was scheduled to be in operation.
The county will get $107,000 less in annual machinery and tools tax revenue when that change kicks in, without counting the Klockner expansion. After the expansion, there would be an overall increase in that revenue of $23,093 per year without counting the impact of the additional jobs.
Company President Harry J.G. van Beek in Gordonsville, where the German-based company has another plant, said he now understands that taxes for the Rural Retreat plant would rise by more than $50,000 per year if the town annexes the industrial park, as planned.
Because of that, van Beek said, the company is suspending its expansion plans. "It is a very sad situation that, after more than a year of negotiations with the Board of Supervisors of Wythe County, now the town is putting this plan again on hold," he said.
He and Rural Retreat Mayor Doug Humphrey are planning a meeting on the situation.
But the new delay has put the county in a quandary. If the expansion does not go through on schedule, the county stands to lose $107,000 in revenue with no idea when, or if, it will be made up by an expanded Klockner operation.
"We can't stand to lose that much money," County Administrator Bill Branson told the Board of Supervisors last week. If the expansion does not materialize, he said, the county might have to put the tax back where it was.
Supervisor Mark Munsey said the lowering of the rate was based on Klockner's having most of its expansion in place by 1997. "So that's going to have a definite impact on those tax revenues," he said. "It's not something that we can hither and dither and play games with."
The county plans to bring up the matter at the quarterly joint meeting of the board and town councils of Wytheville and Rural Retreat Monday night.
Branson's defenders raise ouster question
WYTHEVILLE - Nobody on the new Wythe County Board of Supervisors has publicly mentioned replacing veteran County Administrator Bill Branson, but supporters responding to rumors are speaking on his behalf anyway.
Earlier this month, Curly Amos of Max Meadows told the board that he and Branson have disagreed on many matters in the past 15 years but Branson deserves credit for getting the county on a sound fiscal footing. Last week, Wytheville Community College Professor Emeritus Jim Presgraves of Rural Retreat said any move to replace Branson would simply be revenge over a fight to keep a private prison out of the county.
A majority of the previous board invited a private 1,500-bed prison to locate here, igniting citizen protests. Branson obtained information on Corrections Corporation of America, the company involved, at that board's request.
In the end, the state chose another company with another location for that project. And several supervisors who had supported the prison lost re-election bids last November. The board has now withdrawn its welcome for any private prison.
"Let us say there is a supervisor who is contemptible enough to want to destroy a man's career because that supervisor differs from the county manager [administrator]," Presgraves said. "The only criticism that supervisor could honorably defend would be that the manager had served the previous board well. As a matter of fact, if the manager had not tried to get the information requested by that board, that board should have fired him."
Presgraves suggested that the board appoint a blue ribbon committee to work for several months establishing criteria for the job, advertising it, evaluating and interviewing applicants and making recommendations, timing the procedure to coincide with whenever Branson retires.
Wythe County proposes sewer rates
WYTHEVILLE - Wythe County has proposed sewer rates to go with existing water rates in providing utilities services to parts of the county, after making a study comparing them with other localities in the region.
The water rate is $19.20 per month for an average bill of 4,200 gallons. That compares with $21 for Pulaski County, $25.75 for Montgomery County and $35 for the town of Wytheville.
The sewer rate for that average would be $26 in Wythe, compared with $22.50 for Pulaski County, $21.25 for Montgomery County and $20.35 for Wytheville.
3 people indicted in 2 separate slayings
WYTHEVILLE - Three people have been indicted for two different slayings in Wythe County.
Anthony Quinn Allison, 27, of Wytheville, and Brenda Gail Tuggle, 23, of Saltville, were indicted this month on charges of first-degree murder in the beating death of Kenneth Addison, whose body was found in his Wytheville apartment last August.
They also were indicted on charges of abduction and robbery in connection with the murder. In addition, Allison was indicted on charges of statutory burglary for a break-in at the home of Dewey Wayne Cline last July.
The other murder indictment stemmed from an ax killing of Jabe Showalter of Rural Retreat, killed at a Rural Retreat Lake campsite last September.
Two people were originally charged with his murder, but only one - William Ray Lindsey, a 36-year-old transient who had lived in Wythe County for several months - was indicted.
Sewer, water project is nearly complete
WYTHEVILLE - The town of Wytheville has practically completed work on extending sewer and water facilities to the Petunia section.
The project has seen about 84 homes and six businesses connected to the town sewer system, while 62 homes and two businesses hooked onto the water system.
The project also included housing rehabilitation for some 32 homes. The only remaining work is seeding and smoothing over of the disturbed areas, and that will be done in the spring.
February's the time to buy cat licenses
WYTHEVILLE - Cat owners in Wytheville should buy licenses for their pets in February.
The cat licenses will go on sale Thursday at the Wytheville Municipal Building. The deadline for purchasing them is Feb. 29.
The costs are $4 for neutered cats and $6 for un-neutered cats. Owners buying licenses should bring a certificate showing that the animal has been vaccinated against rabies.
Exempt from the licensing requirement are cats under 4 months old, those kept on a farm, or those at a veterinary hospital, laboratory, or the town's cattery which is defined as a holding facility for felines.
Wytheville is the only community in the area requiring licenses for cats, enacted in an ordinance several years ago following complaints by town residents about problems with so many roaming cats.
Angela R. Keene on president's list
ROANOKE - Angela R. Keene of Wytheville has been named to the president's list at the College of Health Sciences for the fall semester, an honor requiring a student to earn a grade-point average of 3.5 to 4.0.
She is a student in the physical therapist assistant program. The private institution, sponsored by Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley, was founded in 1982.
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