ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 1, 1997 TAG: 9703030020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: TOM ANGLEBERGER STAFF WRITER
Christiansburg Town Council may soon make an offer to buy the Christiansburg Post Office building, which the postal service plans to vacate this summer.
The town had seemed uninterested in buying the downtown building earlier this year, but town officials sent a letter to the postal service this week indicating they are indeed interested.
The building's asking price is $295,000, but town officials have not yet decided how much they will bid or even if they will bid at all. Council members are expected to discuss the matter in a closed-door session at Tuesday's council meeting.
Montgomery County has already decided that it will not bid on the building, according to Deputy County Administrator Randy Wertz. The bidding is open to any individual or business that cares to place a bid, but no one has yet made an offer, according to the postal service.
The service decided that the building and its crowded downtown site were no longer adequate to meet the town's needs. A new post office is under construction on Arbor Drive near the Marketplace shopping center.
While the building, which is designated as a state historic landmark, may not fit the postal service's needs, some council members think it would be just what Christiansburg needs.
"I'm very interested in the municipality acquiring it," said Council Member Ann Carter. "I think it's part of our heritage."
Normally, she said, she thinks the town should not get involved in real estate, but she feels differently about the post office.
"It is a special case as far as I'm concerned. This building is there and [when it is] gone it will be gone," she says, noting that some older buildings in the town have been left vacant and eventually were torn down.
Council member Jack Via recently toured the site and says he is "terribly excited." He thinks the building would be a great place for the chamber of commerce and for museum displays about Christiansburg past and present.
"This is an ideal location for such an activity," he says. The site, he says, would be perfect for visitors to the town because it is so easy to find. In addition to Chamber of Commerce materials, the building could house displays of historical items and products made by local industry.
The location is also important to him because of its historical nature, both as part of the town and as part of the Wilderness Trail, which carried explorers and settlers west during colonial days. Before the post office was built in the 1930s, Mosby and Johnson's General Store stood on the site.
Because of the building's history, he said, he would rather see the town use the building than a business.
"If we don't seize upon this opportunity, we're going to regret it," he said.
Via says he hopes the town can keep not only the building, but also the mural displayed in its lobby.
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