ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 TAG: 9609100028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
The town of Dublin will look substantially different within a year.
It will have a new 9,168-square-foot town hall, a new First National Bank of Christiansburg branch and will be on its way to getting a new post office in what will be called the new Dublin Town Center.
A new restaurant will be sought as another tenant for the center, in what is to become a shopping center in the town.
All that will be a few miles from downtown Dublin, where the town hall and post office are both housed in aging and overworked structures. The Dublin Town Center and Dublin Industrial Park properties were added to the town through a negotiated boundary adjustment with Pulaski County.
Dublin officials held a work session at the future 18-acre Town Center on Thursday, to discuss walkways, types of trees to be planted and other plans for tying the center together.
"Basically, what we want to do is generate a shopping list tonight," Blaine Keesee, landscape architect with Gay Engineering of Christiansburg, told the officials. Keesee is overseeing the Town Center project.
"We've been hired to do a master plan ... a concept plan for the town park," he said. "If we get real elaborate about what's going in the park, we'll probably break it into phases."
Part of the plan would be development of guidelines for future occupants of the park so their buildings and grounds would be in keeping with the rest of the acreage.
The Town Center will be part of the 270-acre Dublin Industrial Park which, in turn, used to be the Burlington Industries site. The town began negotiating with Burlington in 1990 to acquire the vacated property, eventually buying one segment and getting the rest donated by Burlington.
The property includes 16 buildings which the town now rents to 14 companies for shipping, receiving and assembly work. Revenue from the rents is helping to pay for development of the Town Center and construction of the brick municipal building.
ASC Inc., which has been renting 25,000 square feet of space from the town, will construct its own 55,000-square-foot plant in the industrial park to make trim parts for trucks. It will be the first new building in the industrial park.
Dublin Town Council learned that a businessman has offered to donate $1,000 toward development of the park. The businessman was not named.
Other ideas for the Town Center discussed by Dublin officials Thursday included a water fountain, eventually getting rid of the water tank and putting an amphitheater in that location, and labeling the various types of trees to be planted throughout the center. "Walking through the park should be a learning experience," Councilman David Stanley said.
Keesee said the plans are to plant fast-growing trees along the streets within the Town Center, and slower-growing but permanent trees around places like the Town Hall. "We think the Town Center's going to be here for 100 years," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL DELLINGER/Staff. Dublin officials tour a site whereby CNBwarehouses are under construction in the town's industrial park.
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