THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9412300235
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Wouldn't it be wonderful if, in 1995:
A big business with a big payroll announced that it was moving here to this big city.
We all know that business and industrial growth are essential if Suffolk's ever to have money to meet the needs that have only intensified since the tiny central city merged with the huge City of Nansemond.
We've got the space, the economy seems to be loosening and the city's industrial recruiter says interest is intensifying.
Some of the boarded-up properties on Main Street got renewed life.
Most visible of them now is the railroad depot, which was damaged by fire last year but still excites many admirers with its potential for such public uses as a restaurant or visitors' center.
But there are others - too many, for too long - that give downtown an air of abandonment. There are good things happening, but anyone just driving through town would hardly surmise that.
A restaurant actually made it in the Saratoga Street building formerly occupied by The Crystal, a Suffolk landmark.
Heaven knows how many tenants there've been since, but none has been blessed with success. Part of the reason is timing. More employees are coming to downtown, but they aren't here yet. Part of it is offering. Enough said.
A whole slew of people got interested in government, particularly participating in City Council and School Board meetings.
Considering that these two bodies make decisions affecting every one of us 52,000 or so who call Suffolk home, there's little public interest in their doings.
We say we want to participate in matters that affect us, but few contact a City Council or School Board member, write a letter to the editor or otherwise speak out on public matters. Let 'em know you're alive in '95!
Pork producers found an odorless way to transport hogs.
Anyone who's crossed a downtown street as a pig-loaded truck passed through or has driven behind one knows the basis of that wish. I suppose we'll have to settle for continued progress on a bypass around downtown.
The General Assembly actually found it possible to do all the things Gov. George Allen wants to do - with a tax cut at no future cost to us, our children or grandchildren.
He wants gobs of money for prisons, a reduction in the state income tax, and welfare, education and government reform. Remember, too, the General Assembly meets this month, and how much get done depends on its members. Let your legislator know what you expect.
Norfolk Southern began construction in Isle of Wight County.
Its coal-storage yard has been on the books so long that coal has formed on the site. Just kidding. Anyway, Norfolk Southern now has Army Corps permission to proceed.
The railroad has jumped through all kinds of bureaucratic hoops for approval to stockpile coal near Windsor for shipment to Norfolk. Regulatory agencies have rightly insisted on environmental precautions, and I'm confident the county will find Norfolk Southern a top corporate neighbor.
There were no red lights in the Pilot Club's Safety Tree.
The tree, at the corner of Main Street and Constance Road, begins with all-green lights every year. A red bulb is a symbol of a highway fatality.
There have been several years when no green bulb was replaced by red. Let's drive for that again.
No guns were confiscated in any Western Tidewater schools. Despite the conflicting messages of movies and TV, guns aren't problem-solvers but problem- makers.
Nobody asked about things ``out there'' in Suffolk. We're a big part of Hampton Roads.
At year's end, we all could call it the best of our lives. Here's wishing the best! by CNB