ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Usually, members of the public come not to praise but to criticize local elected officials.
But Monday night, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors heard from three speakers who said "thank you," although one speaker also chastised the board for what she saw as a paltry local increase to the School Board's budget.
All three speakers' positive comments were for the board's recent vote to buy 40 acres to build a new elementary school in Riner.
Susan Miller, a Riner Elementary School teacher, told the supervisors their decision was "very important to those of us who live in that area." Miller said the community is "growing in leaps and bounds" and the board's action showed a "very progressive outlook."
Wilma Smith, co-president of the Riner Elementary PTA, added her accolades for the board, saying their work "has not gone unnoticed" and that people "realize the struggle you had" in negotiations.
Glenda Thomas, a Riner parent, said she particularly appreciated the board's decision to pay Ronald Salmons and his family a fair price for the land.
The supervisors voted last month to pay $330,000, a bit more than $8,000 an acre. That came after the board rescinded an earlier vote to condemn the property at a price of $2,763 per acre and launched new negotiations.
"I think this is truly a big event for our community and I think the children will benefit from it for decades," Thomas said.
Thomas did, however, veer from her praise to quarrel with the board's recent decision to give the School Board only about one-third of the $219,000 realized from a 1-cent real-estate tax increase.
Thomas questioned the county's keeping 95 percent of new revenue expected in the coming year - giving schools only 5 percent when it makes up about 70 percent of the total county budget.
She compared the $70,000 in new county money that will go to the schools with $150,000 designated for establishing one or two manned greenbox collection sites.
"What a sad day when buying trash containers is far more important than paying for our children's education," Thomas said.
The board also heard from Margaret Smith, who has opposed the county buying the Salmons' land since November, when word of the proposed purchase first leaked out.
The fair price meant the county "did remove the insult from Ron Salmons. You did not remove the injury," she said. Smith reiterated safety concerns she has about Virginia 8 in front of the existing schools already being overburdened, much less with a new complex.
In other business, the supervisors:
* Approved rezoning 173 acres atop Price Mountain from agricultural to residential status. The county-initiated rezoning of the already developed lots and homes on the ridge will protect landowners from communication companies that want to locate towers on the mountain. Existing towers will be grandfathered in. A larger, 538-acre zoning request on Price Mountain land to the north and south of the 173 acres is pending before the county Planning Commission. Developer William H. Price has proposed a long-term residential development plan for the mountain.
* Learned that the county pool should be repaired and ready to open either Memorial Day weekend or the following week.
Last summer, the board agreed to spend $450,000 from an insurance settlement to build a new pool on the site of the old one, which has been closed for the past two summers because of structural damage caused by mechanical failure. The pool is off U.S. 460 near Christiansburg beside the county recreation offices.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB