ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 5, 1996 TAG: 9612050032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
The gate near Hidden Valley Junior High School will stay closed to prevent school traffic from going through a Southwest Roanoke neighborhood.
And a permanent barricade will be built across Mount Holland Drive to make sure the school doesn't use the street - except in emergencies - if the city Planning Commission gets its way.
The commission Wednesday recommended closing the rear entrance to the school and installing the barricade.
City Council is expected to approve the recommendation because it requested the closing earlier.
State law required the commission to review the proposal before council could permanently close the street and put in the barricade.
Deanna Gordon, Roanoke County school superintendent, told the commission that the barricade will make a "mockery" of governmental cooperation in the Roanoke Valley.
In the minds of hundreds of parents with children at the school, the barricade will loom as high and wide as the Berlin Wall, she said.
Gordon said she thinks that a barricade is an "overreaction" to the proposal to use the school's rear entrance on a limited basis.
But nearby residents said the barricade is needed to ensure that school officials don't open the gate and route traffic through their neighborhood. About 30 people attended the commission's meeting to urge closing of the street.
Dan Lubbs, who lives on Mount Holland Drive, said the neighborhood's safety and stability would be jeopardized if the school were allowed to route traffic on the street.
Unless the street is barricaded, "we don't know how many times the gate might be opened," said Linda Donohue, another resident.
City planners said the barricade would be only a few inches high and most vehicles, including fire trucks and ambulances, could cross it during emergencies, as could normal-size cars.
The residents said they have no objection to the school using their street during a fire, flood or other emergency.
Hidden Valley Principal David Blevins said the school has no desire or plan to open the gate - which is located on school property - for cars or buses on a regular basis, or to use Mount Holland Drive as an access.
Hidden Valley Junior is a county school, but it is in the city. The school was built in 1972 when the neighborhood was in the county. The city annexed the territory in 1976, but the county was allowed to keep the school.
Hidden Valley School Road, off Virginia 419 near Lewis-Gale Hospital, is the only access to the school. For more than two decades, there has been a gate across Mount Holland Drive, which leads to the rear of the school.
School officials and parents have raised the possibility of opening the gate and using the rear entrance for one or two Parent-Teacher Association meetings a year.
Although officials earlier had mentioned the possibility of opening the gate for student dances at night, Blevins said the school has no desire to use it for dances or other student events. He said county police can provide traffic control at the intersection of Hidden Valley School Road and 419 when the school knows the approximate time an event will be over, but it's difficult to predict when PTA meetings will end.
School officials said the intersection is hazardous, particularly at night when no police officer is on duty. An officer directs traffic in the mornings and afternoons when buses arrive and leave.
The county has requested a traffic signal at the intersection, but the Virginia Department of Transportation said it does not meet the requirements for a signal.
Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, is considering introducing a bill in the upcoming session of the General Assembly that would qualify the intersection for a light.
Gordon and Blevins said the rear entrance could be needed if there were a flood, traffic accident or chemical spill that prevented the school from using Hidden Valley School Road.
During the 1985 flood, some students had to stay at the school overnight because of high waters, Gordon said. A chemical spill on 419 could prevent school buses from leaving, Blevins said.
But city planners assured county school officials that the barricade would be low enough for buses and other vehicles to cross. City officials have said they also would support the county's effort to get a traffic signal at the Virginia 419-Hidden Valley School Road intersection.
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