ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160057
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Reporter's Notebook
SOURCE: Kathy Loan
It's been back to the future for me this past month.
Some temporary staff changes at the bureau, coupled with spring fever I imagine, led me to request a six-month break from the police and courts beat I've covered since December 1991.
For the next few months, I'll trade arrest reports and court dockets for covering Montgomery County government and politics and all that entails. I covered this beat 10 years ago while working for the News Messenger and it has been fun getting reacquainted with folks who are still around from then and the new faces who have come on board since then.
I asked for a break from the intensity and stress of covering New River Valley police and courts. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
Switching to county government hasn't been much of a break at all, but it has been a change of pace, which I hope will bring me back to the law enforcement beat with new ideas and fresh enthusiasm.
I jumped into the beat while the county was considering two important decisions - the annual budget and negotiations for a new Riner elementary school site. I traded jury deliberations and lengthy court days for long executive sessions and marathon meetings.
I swapped a debate over constitutional rights versus obscenity at Plum Creek's strip club for a dispute over how best to develop Price Mountain.
I traded covering fires, murders and the like on deadline for trying to file a story - not always successfully - from a portable computer while sitting in the county administrator's office as the meeting went on down the hall.
While I miss the hum of the police scanner and my almost-ingrained knowledge of the police 10-codes that spell out what emergency is being responded to, I'm learning a new language of acronyms spoken by those in local government. Barry Worth, the School Board vice chairman, apologized after he realized he had reeled off some of those acronyms - including PTR for pupil-to-teacher ratio - and had to pause for me to catch up.
Making small talk with dispatchers and police supervisors has been replaced by chats with County Administrator Betty Thomas, who can soothe even the most frazzled nerves with her calm voice that tells you she really does care when she asks how you are. It also has been a pleasure to have something to really talk about with Planning Director Joe Powers, Zoning Administrator Jeff Scott and County Attorney Roy Thorpe instead of making polite conversation as I've passed their offices in the courthouse these last few years.
Ira Long, Joe Stewart and Henry Jablonski were on the Board of Supervisors when I left the beat 10 years ago. Long still remembers a feature I did for the Current in the late 1980s on the pesky multiflora rose - a pet peeve of his at the time - and knows he can embarrass me with a friendly hug instead of shaking my hand when I offer it. Jablonski's even temperament and ability to cut to the chase on issues makes him a good choice as the board's chairman. Stewart, the oldest member of the board at 81, is, I swear, getting even sharper with age, witnessed by his jokes to newcomer Mary Biggs as he passed a seemingly never-ending flow of handouts on to her at a recent meeting.
I look forward to developing impressions of Biggs, Joe Gorman, Jim Moore and Nick Rush as I spend the next few months with the board.
One of the great things about the beat switch is that I haven't had to lose one of my favorite contacts - smiling Mary Huff, who has manned the courthouse's information desk for as long as I can remember being a reporter. Huff gives you her full attention even as she directs people to the offices or courtrooms they are seeking and answers a multiline telephone. Her counter also occasionally serves as my temporary drop-off place, where I stash an umbrella or a beverage I can't take into a court or meeting room, hoping I'll remember to retrieve it on my way out.
Mary, about that unopened Coke I left there last week ...
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB