ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 12, 1996 TAG: 9611120087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
BRIAN WISHNEFF may be hired to lead the effort for a higher education center near downtown Roanoke.
About 15 months ago, Brian Wishneff abruptly left his job as a top aide to City Manager Bob Herbert and struck out on his own as a development consultant for hire.
Now, Wishneff may be coming back - as a hired consultant/project coordinator for a higher education center just north of downtown Roanoke in Gainsboro.
City officials won't comment on the possibility, and neither will Wishneff. Last week, he declined to say whether he had talked with Herbert or others about a consulting job on the center. But he hinted that an announcement was upcoming.
"It's not something I could comment on at this time," Wishneff said last week. "In a week or less, I'd be happy to tell you a whole lot more."
But former First Union Bank of Virginia Chairman Warner Dalhouse said Wishneff told him he was likely to take the job. And state Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, said he knows Wishneff is interested.
"He's quite interested," Edwards said Monday. "[Wishneff] likes the idea, and he wants to be involved. There's still all sorts of issues to be worked out - who will own it; how it will be financed; who will participate."
When he was a city employee, Wishneff did a "great job" on a similar project, Edwards said: the development of the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center. "He would be an ideal person to work on the higher education center," Edwards added.
The higher education center has long been a dream of city officials and some local business leaders.
Edwards ran for the state Senate in 1995 promising to support a higher education center, and in his first year he succeeded in getting about $200,000 in state funding for a feasibility study. The location being eyed is the former Norfolk Southern Corp. office building across Jefferson Street from the new conference center.
Results of the the study are expected to be made public by the end of the month. Based on preliminary data he has been privy to, Edwards said he was confident the study will give a green light to the project.
The center would allow students with two years of community college credit to earn four-year degrees from regional institutions without having to leave town. Edwards said colleges and universities that have expressed interest in participating include Virginia Tech; the city's graduate center on Church Avenue; Virginia Western Community College; Mary Baldwin College in Staunton; Radford University; and Danville-based Averitt College.
Still unclear is where the money to hire Wishneff would come from. It could come out of city coffers, or from a private entity such as Renew Roanoke, which also wants to see a higher education center in the city. Perhaps the city and Renew Roanoke could share the cost, Edwards said, or get other universities that are angling for a spot in the higher education center to chip in.
Renew Roanoke is a nonprofit organization that raised funds to restore Hotel Roanoke and is a part owner of it.
Dalhouse said he didn't know where funding for the job would come from, although he assumed the city would pay for it.
The 43-year-old Wishneff, a native of Norfolk, holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Virginia Tech. He worked in city government for 17 years, rising to become city economic development chief and special projects coordinator. In August of last year, he announced he was leaving to form the consulting business.
The projects he worked on included Design 79, a plan that led to the revitalization of the downtown Farmers' Market; development of Center in the Square; and construction of Campbell Court, the city's downtown bus terminal.
The NS building downtown, the restoration of Jefferson High School, and four public parking garages were some other projects he spearheaded.
The higher education coordinator's position wouldn't be the first time Wishneff has done work for the city since he left city government. One of his first clients was the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission, an entity partially funded by the city.
If Wishneff gets this job, he'll be getting paid as a consultant to do what he would have done anyway as special projects coordinator.
Deborah Moses, the city's current special projects coordinator, could not be reached for comment. Nor could Herbert, who never broached the possibility of hiring a consultant when the subject of the higher education center arose during a City Council meeting last week.
Two members of City Council said Herbert hasn't mentioned the subject to them, even in private.
"The first I heard about it was Saturday morning," Councilman Jim Trout said. "There's a group of us who've been meeting at the Roanoker Restaurant for 30 or 40 years. It sounds like a message that something is lacking, that it's something that needs some additional attention paid to it. It does concern me, that on something like this, nobody I know of on council has been briefed on it."
Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt said she knew nothing about the idea.
"It sounds like we're going to pay him probably twice the amount we would have if he had stayed," she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File/1995. In 17 years with the city, Brian Wishneff,by CNBshown in this file photo, worked on projects from the renewal of the
downtown Farmers' Market to the development of Center in the Square.
color.