
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003222537
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A=10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CRUISING NEEDN'T PIT SUPERVISORS AGAINST CITIZENS

I HAD MY first political experience recently at the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors meeting. As a Boxley Hills resident and taxpayer, I felt that it was my duty and constitutional right to have my voice represented. The issue was the removal of signs prohibiting left turns from Williamson Road into the Boxley Hills subdivision.

From the start, certain board members' reacted as if the residents had committed a crime. I could see a great deal of frustration from Mr. Johnson, the district supervisor. Obviously he has worked hard to find an amicable solution to a tough problem. But he ran and was elected to this board, and that carries a certain amount of responsibility.

Another supervisor refused to comment or vote, abstaining due to "lack of knowledge of the subject." Where has this guy lived for the past 20 years? Cruising has been a part of Williamson Road since McDonald's.

The real farce began when Harry Nickens delivered his five-minute dissertation opposing the use of petitions and the words "demand" and "communism" within the residents' presentations. The Preamble to the Constitution begins with "We the people," and democracy is based on elected officials' carrying the people's "demands" into government. Does he know the definition of democracy and communism?

I believe everyone missed the underlying problem at this meeting: the cruisers, not the signs. I hand it to Johnson for making a try at a solution to a bad situation. The signs will not work without cooperation among the governing body and law-enforcement officials. Of course, I cannot believe the board would try a suggestion made by a sheriff who cannot keep his own animals fenced.

Traffic has subsided since the placing of the signs in September, probably due more to the inception of weekend school activities, cold weather, and the presence of the $9,000 traffic cops. Beer cans and trash are still the norm after a warm weekend.

Boxley Hills has become a victim, a symptom of one of society's bizarre characteristics. Cruising needs to be stopped on Williamson Road, not in Boxley Hills. This doesn't make the residents and the Board of Supervisors enemies, as portrayed by the board.

DIANE NAFF\ ROANOKE

by CNB