ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
The New Century Council may lobby the General Assembly to help push for a commerce park linking transportation networks in the New River Valley.
Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., the council's executive director, said Monday that no formal designation of that project as a council focus for next year has been made "but we are working on that." He said the New River Valley is far ahead of any other part in the New Century region - which encompasses much of Western Virginia - in so-called transportation intermodal parks.
Those are places that link rail, air and highway transportation in one place.
Fitzpatrick was among some 80 regional leaders attending a Western Virginia Transportation Summit on Monday at New River Community College. Besides the proposed intermodal park based at the Dublin Industrial Park, speakers called for a four-lane road linking Blacksburg to Dublin and other localities to the west and consideration of a foreign trade zone in the New River Valley.
"We're not only talking about what we need here in the region today, but for the next 25 or 50 years," said Hiawatha Nicely, one of the organizers of Monday's meeting.
The transportation intermodal park would include a rail spur in place at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant site, not far from the Dublin Industrial Park. The New River Valley Airport is also close to the park.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said intermodal hubs ease freight transfers between truck and rail facilities. He said his office had already brought together representatives of Norfolk Southern Corp. with the Transportation Committee of the Commission on the Future of Southwest Virginia to discuss the possibilities.
Boucher said the commission included a study of a four-lane highway link from Blacksburg to the west among its recommendations when it met Sept. 23 at Virginia Tech, although no route was suggested.
David Rundgren, executive director of the New River Valley Planning District Commission, said such a link would ease transportation between Pulaski County and Montgomery County for work, shopping, education and recreation. It also would tie together the proposed transportation intermodal park, New River Valley Airport, Virginia Tech and its Corporate Research Center.
Rundgren said both the New River Valley link and intermodal center are worthy of funding outside six-year plan projects slated by the state Department of Transportation.
He said emphasis on the link should not take funding from other transportation projects that can help the economic development of the region, such as the "smart" road linking Blacksburg to Interstate 81, improving Virginia 114 between Christiansburg and Radford, improving I-81 and U.S. 460 and replacing Memorial Bridge linking Pulaski County to Radford. "Many of you remember the fun times we had getting around when that bridge was closed a couple of years ago," he said.
Michael Hensley, director of the Economic Development Center at Virginia Tech, explained that foreign trade zones are federally designated areas in which companies are treated as though operating outside the borders of the United States. This allows companies to avoid certain duty and excise tax costs as well as some state taxes, he said.
Virginia now has five such zones, all in the northern or eastern part of the state. A sixth in Bristol, Tenn., serves a small part of Virginia. But it is expensive and time-consuming to establish such a zone - Hensley estimated that it would take several years to get one in the New River Valley - so supporters of the idea must first gauge the interest of existing businesses and industries in such a zone.
Hensley said 59 firms in the New River Valley had been identified in a study as being able to take advantage of such a zone. He thought the best location would be at a new industrial park at New River Valley Airport.
Fitzpatrick urged consideration of using such a zone to serve the entire New Century Council region, including the Roanoke Valley to the east and counties of Wythe and Bland to the west.
The next step will be to meet with industries with any import or export business and explain the benefits of establishing a foreign trade zone. Among those heading the study are Barry Matherly, economic development director for the town of Pulaski; Assistant Pulaski County Administrator Peter Huber; Dublin Town Manager Gary Elander and Pulaski Town Manager Tom Combiths.
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