ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 12, 1996 TAG: 9603120094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Heeding at least in part the urging of a large showing of school advocates, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Monday agreed to seek 30 rather 20 acres for a new elementary school in Riner.
The 5-1 move amounted to the supervisors' third decision on the proposed 750-student school site in less than a month.
First, the board voted to condemn 40 acres behind Auburn High School. Then, after an outcry from the landowner and his supporters, the board retracted that and sought to negotiate for 20 acres.
The county School Board and many school backers said that wasn't enough. Now the supervisors have agreed to negotiate for 30 acres with Ronald Salmons and the bank that holds his family farm in trust.
The decision came after a 50-minute closed-door session, about 15 minutes of which included Salmons and his wife, Tammy, and their attorney, Frank Terwillinger.
Supervisor Nick Rush, the lone dissenter, said the school plan is wrong and based on a flawed study of long-range building needs. One other supervisor, Joe Stewart, refused to come into the meeting room and vote because he objected to voting in public on something agreed to behind closed doors.
Terwillinger said later that the Salmonses agreed only to meet again with the board's negotiators.
School Board Vice Chairman Barry Worth said 30 acres is better than 20, if they can't have the 40. ``If that's what we're given, that's what we'll have to work with,'' he said. Five of nine School Board members watched the decision.
The vote came after impassioned pleas for and against the larger school site before a courtroom packed with more than 100 people. The 19 speakers - 14 favoring a larger school site, and five against it - showed the passion that surround the issue. More people wanted to speak, but were limited by Board of Supervisors' rules.
Almost every speaker in favor of the larger school site urged the board to pay Ronald Salmons a ``fair price'' - one higher than the $2,763 per acre included in the condemnation resolution last month.
``We need the schools done now. You need to listen to the people,'' said parent Ed Stike. ``It's time for you people to step up and do the job for us.''
John Wendland, a recent arrival to Riner, urged the supervisors to take a long-range approach while the land is still available. ``Believe me, 20 years from now, you'll wish you'd bought 60 acres,'' he said.
Sherry Akers found herself pulled between the two camps. She grew up in Riner and is in her first year of teaching health and coaching volleyball and track at Auburn High School. But she's also Ronald Salmons' sister-in-law. Her sister, Tammy Salmons, is expecting a child any day now.
``I have watched these land negotiations tear this family apart,'' she said. ``Everyone here is misinformed. The point is, Ronald does not want to sell his land. ... There must be a more just alternative than forcing citizens to give up their livelihood.''
Salmons asked the board to reconsider trying to buy his land. ``I would like everyone here to stop and think how they would feel if someone tried to take your most valuable possession,'' he said.
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