ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280051
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
For the second time in three months, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has flip-flopped on a major decision. This time it has backed off condemning part of a Riner farm for a new school.
The board withdrew the condemnation by a 4-3 vote late Monday after Supervisor Ira Long - who supported the move two weeks ago - changed his mind. Supervisor Mary Biggs also flip-flopped and was joined by Chairman Henry Jablonski and Nick Rush, both of whom opposed the condemnation to begin with.
A similar scenario unfolded in November when the board rescinded a vote that would have blocked the "smart" highway.
Long said he's heard criticism about the size of the condemnation. The supervisors now want the county staff to negotiate again for a smaller chunk of the same farm, 20 acres or less. Initially, the School Board had sought 50 acres to have enough room for another school or future expansion.
Rush said the board needed to avoid condemnation if it hoped to gain voters' support for a referendum, now in the talking stage, to build or renovate three more schools in Shawsville, Blacksburg and Christiansburg.
Monday's move came as the county was just about to file a court order to take 40 acres for $109,980 out of a 156-acre farm behind Auburn High and Middle schools. The farm is held by Central Fidelity Bank in trust for Ronald Salmons, 27, whose family has owned it since 1932. He is to take control of the land when he turns 30.
The surprise move could throw a monkey wrench into plans to open the new school by 1997. The county is currently on a tight time schedule to borrow $3.87 million this spring and up to $9 million later to launch the project this year. School Board and county officials were to meet Tuesday to talk over the impact.
The supervisors' decision came about two hours after a crowd of more than 40 Riner residents stood to support Salmons when he asked the board to reconsider the condemnation.
Tuesday, Salmons said he was glad the board did what he'd asked, and he thanked his supporters and Long. "It's kind of a shock to me," he said. "I didn't think they would."
Though Salmons told the board Monday his farm "is not for sale," he said Tuesday he'd take a wait-and-see approach to the county's new attempt at negotiation based on the price offered and how much and what part of the farm the county wants. The previous proposal would have taken his access to Virginia 8, which Salmons said he has to use sometimes in bad weather to feed his beef cattle.
Salmons said he's farmed the land since he was a young child and wants to continue. "I feel it is time to stop destroying this beautiful land ... and time to preserve what little history we have left in this fast-growing community for present and future farming generations," he told the board.
Salmons spoke of his late father's unsuccessful attempt to develop 3 acres of the farm as an apartment complex in 1981. The land then was assessed at $11,000 an acre, he said. The county offered the Salmons trust $2,200 an acre in December, then raised that to $2,763 per acre in the condemnation attempt.
Other Riner residents spoke out against the condemnation, including Ted Bobbitt, a neighbor who said he didn't know whether to say "hello or Heil Hitler" to the Board of Supervisors. "This is not right," he said later of the condemnation.
School Board Vice Chairman Barry Worth, who represents the Riner area, said Tuesday no one called him to complain about the condemnation.
"All I heard [were] positive comments that we're going ahead with the project, that people were delighted the Board of Supervisors [was] going ahead with the plan," he said.
Worth went to the meeting, and heard the few who spoke out against the condemnation, but left before the board switched its decision. He said he was disappointed the supervisors acted without hearing from both sides.
"If you had 40 opposed to [the condemnation], you may have 400 supporting it," he said. "It wasn't a good move for the Board of Supervisors. It left people in Riner out of the loop."
In other business, the Board of Supervisors voted 6-1 to add $169,677 to the construction cost of the new health and human services building in Christiansburg to correct design problems in the structure's roof, which collapsed while under construction last fall. The money will come from contingencies set aside in the $3.26 million project budget, most of that paid for through a $2.9 million bond issue voters approved in 1993 and the planned sale of a surplus building.
Staff writer Lisa Applegate contributed information to this report.
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