ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 23, 1996 TAG: 9607230081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on July 30, 1996.
A story in last Tuesday's paper about the Bedford County Board of
Supervisors approving a site for the county's new library branch in
Forest misidentified the owners of the property.
R. Gene Goley is the business manager for the property owners, not
the owner. His wife, Laura Radford Goley, and her sister, Anne Radford
Barrett, are the owners.
Bedford County supervisors selected a site for a new library in Forest Monday, even as county residents in Montvale wonder why it's taking so long to get their library built.
Supervisors voted 6-1 to sign a $198,000 contract for 8.5 acres of land on U.S. 221 near Virginia 811. On top of the purchase price, the county also may pay $155,000 to add sewer lines to the site.
Forest's new library is the first project in a $7.1million bond referendum passed last November to add 18,000 square feet of library space countywide.
The county's four branch libraries are so small that if they were all combined into one building, the combined facility still wouldn't meet the state's suggested size for one branch library.
New branch libraries will be built in Montvale, which does not have a library, as well as in Stewartsville, Moneta and Forest, where the library board leases space.
According to a library board plan, which was drafted after the bond referendum passed, the Forest library will be built by 1998, Moneta's library by early 1999, Montvale's by late 1999, and Stewartsville's by 2000.
Some Montvale residents are upset that Forest, which already has a library, is getting the go-ahead.
"The library board has scheduled us next to last," said Jessie Richards, a Montvale resident and longtime rescue volunteer. "I can't understand when all these other areas have libraries, why we're being pushed down the line so far."
The closest library for Montvale residents is in Bedford, about a 40-mile round trip, Richards said. She said she and others in her area campaigned for the bond referendum thinking the Montvale library would be built as soon as possible. "We read in Montvale. We read a lot," she said. "And we want a library."
Tom Hehman, director of the county library system, said Forest has received top priority because, "It's the busiest library in the county by far."
He said he wants to see all the libraries built as soon as possible and that the plan could be changed to accommodate a library being built in Montvale sooner. "I'm delighted the people in Montvale want their library. That's great!" he said.
Montvale Supervisor Bob Crouch said he wanted the schedule stepped up for the library in his district. "The clear feeling in the community is they've been used and now they've been abused," he said. He also said he was concerned about the sizes of the other parcels of land, which may be less than half the size of the Forest parcel.
Supervisor Calvin Updike said, "I wonder if people knew that $350,000 of this bond money was going just for this site at Forest, if they would have voted the way they did."
The Forest site is being purchased from R. Gene Goley of Forest.
Supervisor Dale Wheeler said he was concerned by the price of the library site in Forest, but also knew what prime commercial property sells for in the fast-growing suburban area.
The Board of Supervisors voted to hold off the closing of the sale as long as possible to ensure that bonds can be sold to cover the purchase. Otherwise, the county would have to borrow from its contingency fund or take other measures to incur debt.
Because the land in Forest is relatively flat, it will need little grading, county officials said. Also, it may not need a sewer line because it has enough land to create a drainage field.
If the county decides to build the $155,000 sewer line, its Public Service Authority has said it will be able to pay back the county for about half that amount from residential and commercial hookups to the line.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB