ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060024
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Slightly more than a year ago, Councilman John A. Johnston was the first Town Council member to announce as a candidate for re-election to that governing body.
Now he is Pulaski's mayor, as much to his own surprise as anyone's.
That will mean a lot of changes in his life, not the least of which is that he will have to decide in 1998 instead of 2000 whether to seek re-election. Council members serve for four years, but mayors have two-year terms.
Two resignations - one by Councilman J.R. Schrader in May 1994, and the other by Andy Graham at the end of January - paved the way for Johnston to become Pulaski's top elected official.
Johnston will complete the term started last summer by Graham, who won a second term as mayor last year but had to resign because of health problems.
It is not the way he would have chosen to become mayor, Johnston said. He would have preferred that Graham complete his second two years.
"I take this responsibility with a lot of apprehension," Johnston said Tuesday after his fellow council members elevated him to the post. "I think we've got a good town administration, we've got a good council, so I'll do what I can and see what comes out."
One of Graham's emphases as mayor had been on improving the delivery of town utilities such as water and sewer. That is also likely to be a major interest for Johnston.
Even when he was not on council, Johnston was serving as a Pulaski representative on the Peppers Ferry Regional Wastewater Treatment Authority, which treats Pulaski's wastewater. He has been on that authority for a dozen years and served as its secretary. He still has not been replaced as chairman of council's Utilities Committee.
An earlier council had appointed Johnston in 1994 to complete the remaining half of Schrader's term. In 1996, Johnston then won a four-year term of his own.
But he was anything but a novice in local government even then. He had already served 12 years on council in previous terms. In fact, Schrader had succeeded Johnston when Schrader was first elected to council in 1988.
Johnson retired in 1991 as finance officer for the Pulaski County school system, when the state made its one-time early retirement offer. He had been principal of two elementary schools in Pulaski for more than 25 years, before moving into school administration. He continued to do some teaching at Virginia Tech, with one of his classes coinciding with council's meeting date, which kept him from allowing himself to be considered for an earlier appointment to council when then-Vice Mayor Jim Neighbors moved outside the town limits.
Council has 45 days to appoint someone to the council seat left vacant by Johnston.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Johnstonby CNB