ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210052
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
READING Matt Chittum's April 14 news article (``Rescue crews sound alarm''), we noticed the Read Mountain/Bonsack area wasn't mentioned. That's an understandable omission because our community doesn't have a rescue squad.
Public safety is a basic level of service that all citizens should be able to expect. Our community needs this public-safety service.
Timely response is critical in successful emergency operations. At present, rescue squads must drive extra miles (and extra minutes) as they respond from Blue Ridge in Botetourt County or from Hollins or Vinton in Roanoke County.
The emergency-service facility nearest to Lord Botetourt High School is the Read Mountain Fire Department, but no ambulance is deployed at that site.
This area is home to 15 subdivisions and two industrial parks. Major highways like U.S. 460, U.S. 220 and Interstate 81 crisscross our landscape. County planners tell us to expect more growth - soon. The need for improved response time by rescue squads is evident.
Staffing a rescue squad is a challenge. Volunteers give countless hours in training and service to their communities. This large commitment to service discourages many new recruits. We suggest localities offer a financial incentive to public-safety volunteers.
We don't presume to be public-safety scholars, but the means to meet this need exist. The Read Mountain fire station is a cooperative effort by Roanoke and Botetourt counties. Would a rescue squad be a greater challenge? Perhaps we could create a satellite station from one of the squads already serving the community. The emergency-medical help closest to Bonsack is Roanoke city's fire station on Orange Avenue. Would subcontracting for its services be a cost-effective way to meet the need?
We need to meet this public-safety challenge.
ALVIS S. HARDY
President, Bonsack/Blue Ridge area Ruritan Club
ROANOKE
Power-line foes lost credibility
IT WAS somewhat amusing to read Jeff Janosko's letter to the editor (April 29, ``AEP tries to buy favor with officials'') questioning the credibility of the Coalition for Energy and Economic Revitalization, a grass-roots organization of more than 500 labor, business, civic and governmental organizations whose membership is well over 272,000 citizens of Virginia and West Virginia.
It isn't every day someone attacks the credibility of just about everyone else in the area except a group of power-line opponents. Janosko casts aspersions on labor leaders, businessmen, civic organizations, government leaders, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, Harry Nickens, the College of Health Sciences, American Electric Power and, by inference, anyone who doesn't agree with his position.
He claims "CEER's members are AEP employees and private contractors who work for AEP." By his definition, the following groups, for example, now work for AEP: Bassett Furniture; Roanoke Electric Steel; Lions and Kiwanis clubs; the Grundy Women's Club; the boards of supervisors in Pulaski, Tazewell, Washington, Smyth counties, etc.; the towns and cities of Grundy, Martinsville, Danville; the Virginia and West Virginia AFL-CIO; and the Virginia and West Virginia Chambers of Commerce.
It's amusing to contemplate the Lions clubs or the Grundy Women's Club working for AEP. More likely, AEP works for these groups - to provide reliable, low-cost electricity in the face of opposition to expanding the electricity infrastructure.
The Janosko letter is the kind we CEER members don't mind seeing. It's so ridiculous that it helps destroy the credibility of the power-line opposition.
BILL TANGER
Coordinator for the Coalition for Energy and Economic Revitalization
ROANOKE
Educators try to strike out God
SEVERAL troubled students have written letters to the editor recently decrying the teaching of evolution as a scientific fact. They feel the subject should be presented only as a theory or possibility. I agree with them.
I was shocked speechless when I heard Walter Cronkite on a television documentary stating, as he held an ancient skull in each hand, that human evolution from apes over many millions of years had been proved beyond any doubt. He referred to the apes as his ancestors.
We have to wonder why educators have become so frantic to brainwash young people with evolution. I believe they have managed to get all references to the Almighty stricken from the record. Now, if they attack whatever faith these students are carrying in their heads, the policymakers may eventually erode any Bible-based teachings parents have given at home.
Granted, the creation concept would be categorized as supernatural. So what are these so-called educators going to do about millions of Christians who trust in the supernatural resurrection of Jesus Christ and his eventual supernatural return to the Earth?
HELEN A. STANLEY
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB