Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 23, 1990 TAG: 9004230035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Despite the commonwealth's humanistic effort, the combination of facilities at the welcome center may be backfiring.
Lots of travel-weary cats apparently refuse to hop back in the car when it's time to go, opting instead to defect.
The half-dozen or so felines rummage through trash cans for food and slink into storm sewers when approached by humans. They also use the sandy floor of the playground as a litter box, rendering themselves slightly more than heart-wrenching reminders of pet-less travelers long gone.
The cats are neat additions to the cold world of a highway rest stop - until the kiddies roll in the playground sand, and you don't realize until the Hillsville interstate exit that something alien and unpleasant is clinging to their sweat pants.
\ You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can fool a Duquesne University student all of the time. Apparently, a trio of students from the college in Pittsburgh read about the wonders of Roanoke in their school newspaper and came here during spring break in March.
Why tangle with the crowds in Daytona when you can lounge in under-populated Roanoke? Why brave sun and surf in Florida when you can have drizzle and flash-flood warnings right here in the Old Dominion?
Walt Staples, the former Roanoker who had the nerve to pitch the Star City in print, says one of the Fightin' Duquesnettes told him she'll probably return this summer. I gotta meet this gal.
\ Let us hope that Roanoke City Hall is made of stuff that the fans of the Bedford County Courthouse can only dream about.
Just last month it was revealed that a pair of stately magnolia trees on the front lawn of the courthouse in Bedford were blocking sunlight, keeping bricks moist, and might be contributing to the building's slow-motion collapse.
The trees have been spared so far, said William Rolfe, the county administrator, who hasn't yet even authorized a modest trim.
A couple dozen miles west in Roanoke, the Bedford lesson has been lost. Seventeen new sycamore trees were planted Tuesday along the Campbell Avenue side of city hall, between Second and Third streets.
Mark my words, in 30 years when those sycamore trees are 60 feet tall, shading sidewalks and stairs and retaining walls and perhaps City Hall itself, Roanoke Humongous Merged Government Administrator David Hayden will be threatening to turn the mighty sycamores to firewood.
The ghosts of Bedford magnolias past will moan from their ashen graves: We told you so. Keep the trees away from the halls of power, lest they turn your mortar soggy. It is a lesson for the ages.
by CNB