ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: KATHY LU STAFF WRITER
A sharply divided Radford City Council spent its entire reserve fund for the new fiscal year Monday when it OK'd $107,725 to renovate the Radford High School football stadium.
Mayor Thomas Starnes and Councilwoman Polly Corn were on the losing side of the 3-2 vote that involved funds set aside to cover costs not budgeted. The city's fiscal year just started last week.
"I felt that we had much higher priority items in the city than erecting a fence for crowd control and the seats are very adequate as far as I'm concerned," Starnes said. "We've also spent the entire account on the first regular council meeting of the year, and that's never happened before."
Though the renovations would put the city's contingency account in the red, Starnes said it would not inhibit the council from taking action on any future projects that have not been budgeted for.
The renovations would add two more lanes to the track, aluminum seats for the remainder of the stadium and a fence around the football field. Fred McCoy, chairman of the stadium committee and former Radford High School coach, said the committee has been working since September on renovation plans.
"We're trying to get done to the stadium what should've been done years ago," McCoy said. "It was built in 1967 and hasn't been touched except for fixing the concrete foundation under some of the seats and regular maintenance."
McCoy said the two new track lanes will be completed for the first football game. He also said the committee is looking into building a field house and new bathrooms in the next four to five years.
In other actions, council agreed to review American Cable Entertainment's request for a 10-year franchise extension in Radford. The company's original franchise expires in August 1999. American Cable filed for bankruptcy in February and hopes to recover by the end of year with the council's approval of the extension, said J.P. Morbeck, the company's vice president, at the council meeting.
Morbeck said the extension would allow the company to spend between $750,000 and $900,000 to upgrade its services and include more channels in the packages it offers subscribers. Council members were concerned with seeing an increase in cable bills with the upgrade.
"It's obvious that we haven't collected enough from subscribers to pay off our debts - we're bankrupt," Morbeck said. "With the the upgrade, we're hoping the competitive factors will dampen the rates. But the entire franchise could be terminated if we don't upgrade by next year."
Council also approved spending $75,665 to buy a street sweeper and $54,628 to buy a new dump truck. There was also $7,853 left in the Fire Department payroll account that council approved to spend on hiring two summer employees to clean, grease, paint and flow test the city's fire hydrants.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB