ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 1996 TAG: 9606060037
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BEVERLY FITZPATRICK JR.
FOR ABOUT eight years now, we have been reading in the newspapers and watching on television reports about the "smart road" proposal for Montgomery County. It is difficult to understand what a smart road might be and, even more perplexing to envision, what it might do for Montgomery County and the region.
My mom and dad always said to keep things as simple as possible. So, when I think of the smart road, I see two things: 1) opportunity to grow an entirely new industry in the region, and 2) jobs for many citizens who will be re-engineered and laid off as corporate America continues to change.
The smart road for Montgomery County in 1996 is like the railroad coming to Roanoke in 1882. No one really knew what it would bring the community, but enlightened leaders raised money and rode on horseback overnight to meet with the board of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad in Lexington to ask that they come to Roanoke. They did, and history tells us what tremendous benefits the Norfolk Southern has brought to Western Virginia for years.
The smart road is Montgomery County's railroad, and it can have a profound impact on the future of the New Century region. It has the potential to create the new high-technology industrial base we all want, with higher-paying jobs created by new companies spawned from the transportation research at Virginia Tech.
As the coming of the railroad of the 21st Century, the smart road can shape more of our lives than we imagine. It is the prototype for rural interstate highways across America, using high technology to put more traffic on current roads, meaning less new construction that harms our environment - all this while giving travelers a safer way to travel.
True, those who oppose this project have every right to voice their opinions. But isn't it interesting that many of them have not worked diligently to create new jobs for our citizens, are not native to Western Virginia and have not raised their children here only to see them leave the area because there were no decent jobs for them? Our goal as a region must be to create jobs so our displaced citizens and their children have the chance to live and work in this region, benefitting from excellent opportunities and good-paying careers.
You know, over time we have seen lots of prospects come our way but decide not to locate here (Piedmont Airlines headquarters, Volvo's headquarters, Western Electric, Siecor, Allied Signal, and others). Ironically, they always look bigger leaving town to locate somewhere else.
Let's make sure we do not lose the smart road, just to see it surface somewhere else. It is one of the largest potential job-creation projects Western Virginia has ever seen. It can change our future and keep our children and grandchildren here.
The smart road can change our lives just as the railroad changed the Roanoke Valley. The smart road can provide a long-lasting marriage between Virginia Tech's research and new industry that, together, can foster jobs and recognition of the New Century Region as one of the top transportation research and product-manufacturing areas in the 21st century. With Tech's great strength in this specialty, we can spawn the creation of many new and expanding small and medium-size businesses in the area.
Now is the time for people from all over the New Century Region to let the leaders of Montgomery County know of your support and belief in this project.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has a challenging decision to make. This decision the board must make will affect all of us in the entire New Century Region. Let's tell them the region is behind them when they vote to create jobs and a better future for the people who love the New Century Region.
Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr. of Roanoke is director of the New Century Council.
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