ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Pulaski County government and school officials will look into ways of paying off the remaining $40,000 debt on the Louisa P. Chrisley Fitness Center at Pulaski County High School.
It is estimated that the 14,000-square-foot center, named for a popular girls' track coach who died in 1987, would have cost more than $1.3 million had it been constructed commercially. That figure does not include its 14 pieces of Nautilus equipment, six exercise bikes, 15 stair-climbing machines and other equipment.
Instead, the facility was built with volunteer labor and equipment with more than $250,000 contributed by county citizens in cash and more than $200,000 worth of donated services and equipment. The school's vocational classes and instructors directed the work and sometimes helped in the construction.
So the center was completed at a fraction of what it would have cost through traditional construction, and Signet Bank lent the project committee $85,000 to complete it. All but $40,000 of that loan has been repaid and, on Monday night, the committee asked the Board of Supervisors to pay the rest.
The county administrative staff and School Board will look into ways to pay off the debt within two years.
Until the center's completion several years ago, the high school had limited facilities for its physical education classes and athletes. Now, adults can also use it during set hours seven days a week for a monthly $10 fee, used to maintain and replace equipment. County children can use it free.
In other business Monday, the Board of Supervisors:
* Approved $20,000 for a housing study requested by Pulaski Encouraging Progress to be carried out by Virginia Tech agricultural economist Tom Johnson. A lack of housing in Pulaski County has been cited as an impediment to economic development.
* Looked at possible sites for the town of Pulaski to place two trash collection containers that would be emptied by the county Public Service Authority. The PSA board had asked the supervisors to handle the extra cost involved, and the supervisors agreed to pay on equipment only up to a cost of $10,200.
* Authorized a $1.29 million contract with Resource Consultants and Developers Inc. of Parkersburg, W.Va., to construct an 84,000-square-foot industrial shell building in the county's Corporate Center near Dublin. The corporation submitted the lowest bid among six bids for the project.
Received a complaint about excessive noise from a band each night during July 4-6 on the New River at Allisonia from Reba Farris, along with a request for a county noise control ordinance. Instead, the board decided the Sheriff's Office should investigate noise complaints on a case-by-case basis.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB