ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 TAG: 9701220071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on January 23, 1997.
Roanoke County School Board member Thomas Leggette was incorrectly
identified as chairman of the board in a story Wednesday. Leggette's
term as chairman ended Jan. 1.
Roanoke City Council on Tuesday agreed to close a rear entrance to Roanoke County's Hidden Valley Junior High School with a 4-inch-high curb and a handful of small shrubs.
The 6-0 vote capped an hour-long public hearing in which county residents likened the proposal to the Berlin Wall and the dispute to fighting in Bosnia.
Council's action may lead to yet another fight - in court. The county School Board chairman says he is inclined to sue to stop the road closure. And county school Superintendent Deanna Gordon said after the meeting that the school system has already consulted lawyers about the barricade.
"I haven't polled the other members of the School Board," Chairman Thomas Leggette said after council's decision. "I am inclined to pursue it in court, assuming the legal fees are reasonable."
Hidden Valley is a county school within 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.
The gate is at the heart of the dispute. By all accounts Tuesday night, it remained closed from 1973 until 1994, when neighbors learned of plans to open it.
County school officials say they would like to do that only after night activities maybe 10 times a year - or for emergencies when the school needs to be evacuated.
There is no traffic signal on 419 at Hidden Valley School Drive, and increasing traffic on the highway makes the intersection dangerous, they say. The Virginia Department of Transportation says a signal would make the intersection more dangerous, because motorists on 419 wouldn't have time to see it.
Residents along Mount Holland Drive, Keithwood Drive and Bruceton Road fear large amounts of school traffic through their quiet neighborhood.
"We have lots of residents who are older than I am whose safety, I feel, would be jeopardized," said James Walker II, who lives on Keithwood. "These citizens walk at all hours of the day or night - particularly at night."
Michael Thacker, who lives on Mount Holland, noted that the county made the decision in 1973 to keep the gate closed after neighbors - who lived in the county at the time - said they didn't want the traffic in their neighborhood.
City officials told council that the curb barricade - essentially a small traffic island with bushes - was the right solution. Only 4 inches high and slanted toward the road, the barricade wouldn't deny access to fire trucks, police, or ambulance that had to get onto school property quickly in an emergency.
But county resident disagreed vehemently.
"If the city blocks an emergency entrance to the school only because the children are from the county, are we any different than Bosnians and Serbians?" asked Dr. Mark Nevin, a county parent whose daughter attends Hidden Valley.
"Building the Berlin Wall, dividing the city and county, is no solution," said Danielle Rand-Byrd, another county parent.
In the end, council said the barricade was nothing new, because the gate has been closed for 23 years.
"We aren't essentially closing anything that hasn't already been closed," Councilman Nelson Harris said. "We are simply ... maintaining the status quo."
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