ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 28, 1997 TAG: 9702280002
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
The Roanoke County School Board won't go to court over a barricade across the rear entrance to Hidden Valley Junior High School.
Chairman Michael Stovall said Thursday night that four board members have agreed they don't want to challenge Roanoke City Council's decision to barricade Mount Holland Drive Southwest.
Board member Thomas Leggette favored a court fight, but he said he didn't make a motion for a lawsuit because he knew no other member would support it.
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 at the rear of the school 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 Virginia 419 from Hidden Valley Road School, particularly at night when no police officer is on duty to direct traffic.
But Mount Holland Drive residents protested the county's proposal to use the rear entrance.
Council voted recently to install the barricade, which is low enough for vehicles to cross in an emergency. The residents said they don't object to school traffic using Mount Holland Drive in an emergency.
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.
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