ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 TAG: 9612310073
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
Happy New Year, almost. It's time to start getting used to writing 1997 in dates, and to get ready for whatever else the coming year might have in store.
One change will start next week in the town of Pulaski. When Town Council holds its first meeting of the year at 4 p.m. Jan. 7, it will be without Assistant Town Manager Rob Lyons, who has been with the town since mid-1990. Lyons will have started a new job the day before as assistant city manager at Murfreesboro, Tenn., the first person to hold that position.
So one obvious prediction for the New Year is that Pulaski will hire a new assistant town manager, or perhaps a new assistant to the town manager, the slightly different position which Lyons held when he was first hired. When the manager who hired him left for another job in 1993, it took four months for the town to sift through more than 140 applications to choose his replacement. It might take as long for the assistant position, too.
The fate of a proposed expansion of the New River Resource Authority, to include the members of the current Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority, may become more clear after Dublin Town Council holds a public hearing at 7 p.m. Jan. 28. The governing bodies of the other NRRA members, Pulaski County and the city of Radford, seem to favor the addition of Montgomery County, Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Virginia Tech to the agency.
But all three members would have to approve it, to make it official, and some Dublin council members have expressed misgivings about the expansion. Councilman Benny Skeens said Dublin should have been involved in the negotiations leading to the proposed agreement (Radford Mayor Tom Starnes and Pulaski Supervisor Jerry White spent eight months working it out with Montgomery authority representatives). Skeens made it clear that, in voting to schedule the public hearing, he was in no way signaling his approval of the agreement.
Councilman Sam Gregory has said he opposes the agreement altogether. It could have died Nov. 21. Two council members were absent and Skeens, Gregory and Dublin Mayor Benny Keister, who also expressed misgivings, could have killed it that night. Dave Farmer saved it, at least temporarily, by pushing for postponement of a decision on the public hearing. Council scheduled the hearing at its meeting this month.
Another concern of the Dublin officials is representation under the proposed agreement. The Montgomery contingent, the city of Radford and Pulaski County would each have three board members, with one of Pulaski County's representatives being named by Dublin. Now, Pulaski County has four representatives, Radford has two and Dublin has one. The Dublin argument is that Pulaski County should have control because the new landfill to be operated by the NRRA is in the county, at Cloyds Mountain. The one being phased out is in Radford.
What else lies ahead in 1997?
Dublin will be in its new brick 9,100-square-foot Town Hall within the first few months. The building will be a centerpiece in the Dublin Town Center, located on former Burlington Industries property acquired by the town in recent years. A bank has already opened in the Town Center, and the Dublin Post Office will be moving there from its downtown location, across from the present Town Hall.
The fate of the existing building will be decided in 1997. Proposals have ranged from selling to demolishing the aging structure. Town Council meetings are no longer held there, but in the Dublin library building. That will soon change.
Construction is scheduled to start this spring on a small-business incubator in the Pulaski County Industrial Park, on the former AT&T acreage near Fairlawn. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, secured a $2 million Economic Development Administration grant for that project, as well as a $500,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant to build water and sewer utilities for the industrial park.
The 31,081-square-foot New River Valley Competitiveness Center will help boost small business entrepreneurs and offer shared services on computers, photocopying and fax machines as well as conference areas and clerical and technical business support.
It will also offer space for the New River Valley Planning District Commission, which now has offices in a former school building in Radford, and the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance, now housed in offices provided by New River Community College.
All these moves will probably happen early in 1998, when the building is completed.
Dirt will also start moving this summer on a regional jail in Dublin's industrial park, also on land obtained from Burlington. The New River Valley Regional Jail will serve the city of Radford and counties of Pulaski, Giles, Grayson, Bland, Floyd, Carroll and Wythe, all of whom have found it more difficult and expensive to maintain independent jails as state regulations increase.
Assistant Radford City Manager Bob Lloyd, more than any other individual, made the project happen. Currently chairman of the jail authority, he spent years shepherding the project through changing state requirements to qualify for 50 percent state funding, localities withdrawing from it and later wanting to rejoin, and an 11th-hour protest by some people living near the proposed site. The jail should be open in 1999.
Those are just a few of the things we already know are happening in 1997. Watch this space for some of the surprises!
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