ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 TAG: 9701140038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
The Roanoke County School Board may go to court to try to block Roanoke from placing a barricade across the rear entrance to Hidden Valley Junior High School.
Board members say they are prepared to seek legal action because they fear a barricade could threaten the safety of children in an emergency if the school had to be evacuated quickly.
"It's a shame that we're faced with a situation that could jeopardize the lives and safety of children," said Thomas Leggette, a board member.
"If they put up a barrier that a car couldn't cross in an emergency, I would support legal action [to try to prevent it]," said Jerry Canada, a board member.
Paul Mahoney, county attorney, said the board could ask for an injunction to prevent construction of a barricade.
The city Planning Commission has recommended that the city place a barricade across Mount Holland Drive, the street that leads to the rear of the school. City Council is expected to approve the recommendation next week; it asked the commission to review the proposal.
Hidden Valley Junior is a county school, but it is in the city. The school was built in 1972; Roanoke 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. There has been a gate across Mount Holland Drive at the rear of the school for more than two decades, because nearby residents object to school buses and other school traffic coming through the neighborhood.
Last summer, school officials and parents raised the possibility of opening the gate and using the rear entrance for one or two Parent-Teacher Association meetings a year.
School officials said it is hazardous for school traffic to enter the intersection at Hidden Valley Road School and Virginia 419, particularly at night when no police officer is directing traffic.
But Mount Holland Drive residents have protested the county's proposal to use the rear entrance to the school even one or two nights a year; they fear it could lead to regular use. At the residents' request, council members agreed to begin the process to erect the barricade.
City planners said the barricade would be low enough that school buses and other vehicles could cross it in an emergency. The residents said they don't object to school traffic using Mount Holland Drive in an emergency.
But county school officials are worried that the barricade would be too high for cars to cross.
Board Chairman Michael Stovall said the county could raise the safety issue in court.
School officials said the rear entrance would be needed if there were a flood, traffic accident or chemical spill that prevented vehicles from using Hidden Valley School Road.
During the 1985 flood, some students had to stay overnight at Hidden Valley because of high water.
The county has requested a traffic signal at Hidden Valley School Road and Virginia 419, but the Virginia Department of Transportation said the intersection does not meet the requirements for a signal.
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