Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990 TAG: 9003280422
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Montgomery County's $565,000 purchase, approved Monday night, includes Angle's Super Market and several other longtime businesses. Closing date is July 1.
The sale includes the supermarket, Bill's Barber Shop, the Corner Beauty Shop and the Unique Boutique, plus eight apartments above the stores.
"I don't think much of it," said barber Owen Linkous, who has had a shop in the area for 35 years. "It's going to make it bad, not getting more notice than that."
The sale does not include four small buildings on Main Street that house Angle Florist, The Budget Store and several law offices, as this newspaper erroneously reported Tuesday morning. Bobby Roberts, who owns the flower shop, spent much of the day reassuring customers that he had no plans to move.
Most of the displaced merchants said they weren't angry about the sale, just surprised. Linkous said the sale had been talked about for at least a couple of years, but he and others were caught off guard when the county Board of Supervisors approved it.
"I thought it was a nice way to tell somebody - to [see it] show up in the Roanoke Times," said Robin Dunavant, manager of the Unique Boutique store.
Beegee Atkinson said she likes to wave to the people who regularly walk by the beauty shop she has run since 1966.
"I panicked this morning," said Atkinson, who noted that merchants across Main Street got two years' notice when Christiansburg bought their buildings in January.
Atkinson said she hopes to stay downtown so she won't lose her customers. But several merchants said shoppers would have little reason to come downtown once the stores are gone.
"I probably could go work for somebody, but I don't know how I'd adjust to that," Atkinson said.
Fred Graham, one of the five owners of Angle's Super Market and the other buildings to be sold, would not say whether the market would be closed or be moved.
"It's all happened so fast, I just don't know," he said.
The 62-year-old store is an institution in Christiansburg and one of the few markets that still delivers groceries. It also offers credit accounts to its customers.
Dunavant said she was just beginning to develop a clientele for her clothing store. She pointed to the back room, filled with clothing for a local shelter.
"That's for the homeless," she said. "And now we're homeless."
County Administrator Betty Thomas said no decisions had been made on how the buildings will be used. Studies have shown the county should build a health department building within five years and a county administration building within 10 years.
The county also owns a large strip of land between Pepper and Roanoke streets.
by CNB