Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005180063
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GRACE BOSWORTH SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The supervisors provided two workers, a team of mules and a road scraper, a machine a lot like an enormous wheelbarrow. Property owners provided land, money, a team of horses and a driver. By the time all the sweat dried there was a main road that could accommodate buggies and wagons.
Today, the same spirit of cooperation is changing the face of the road and, indeed, the whole area. If you want to check on the progress all you need do is sit down with Ted Key, executive director of the Williamson Road Area Business Association.
"We consider the area to be all or parts of Orange Avenue, Plantation, Hollins, Hershberger and Peters Creek roads, along with 10th Street, Liberty and Williamson roads and all connecting arteries. Of course, that includes part of [Interstate] 581," Key said.
"From the best estimates we could get from the Department of Transportation, approximately 225,000 people travel parts of our territory daily," Key said. "That's over twice the population of Roanoke City."
Given that statistic, is there any doubt about why the business association works in conjunction with the Williamson Road Action Forum, the Roanoke Neighborhood Partnership, Roanoke, Roanoke County and anyone else they can find who is willing to dream?
"If I had to set our goals in the simplest terms, it would be that we want three things: economic development, revitalization and beautification for the entire area. Our motto is `Growing Together' and that is what we have to do," Key said. "We will never become a Williamsburg, but we can do a tremendous job in making improvements."
Collected area data indicate there are about 700 businesses in the Williamson Road area. Almost 190 of them currently are members of the Williamson Road Area Business Association. One of Key's main jobs is to knock on doors and talk with groups to bring in more members.
A native of North Carolina, Key has been at his present post since October 1988.
"I've been in Roanoke about nine years," he said. One of his jobs here was as personnel director for the Home Shopping Network.
"While I was trying to hire hundreds of people a day, the owners were making plans to move most of that operation elsewhere. I had many tearful people to comfort."
Apparently, Key has not let that experience faze him.
Transformation is not going to happen overnight. We have both long- and short-term projects," he said, reaching for a thick book prepared by Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern and Buckhurst, Fish, Hutton & Katz. It is an urban-design catalog for the Williamson Road corridor, submitted in November 1986 after the work of many committees come together.
Through the glass front of the business association's office at 3308 Willimson Road he can point out first steps already taken for that block in short-term development - the stretch between Huntington Boulevard and Wildhurst Street.
"There were some very old houses between the church and Oakland Elementary School. They're gone now and the school is closed this year for renovation. When it opens, there will be more playground space for the children; an attractive walk area, fence and shade trees will front the school. The business next to the school has already repainted the outside and owners are looking at tree-planting ideas, as is the bank next door to them. This will be a much more attractive block by the end of next year."
Literally underlying the surface changes is the massive storm-drain installation project. At a cost of almost $20 million the city has installed new lines and catch basins to end deep runoff problems.
Key believes the project came about because people in the Williamson Road area took their civic pride to city hall and made themselves heard.
It was the same civic pride touched with anger that drove out the ill-famed massage parlors and most of the adult bookstores along the road. "This area is full of good people who want a decent place to live and work, and through [the Williamson Road Action Forum] and our organization they have made that known. Community involvement for at least the last 10 years now begins to be seen," Key said.
Plans for another short-term project represent plantings for Breckinridge Middle School.
"That started because we had support, both vocal and monetary, from the Roanoke Valley Garden Club Council. They made the first contribution. It's going to cost $12,000.
"Right now we have almost $1,400 escrowed in the bank to pay for it. Contributions are being solicited from businesspeople and private citizens and marked for Breckinridge," Key said.
His eyes lit up when he included, "Anyone who wants to help with this one can send us a check."
Key is quick to point out that the move to beautify neighborhoods is growing across Virginia and much of America, citing Bedford, Richmond, and North Carolina cities.
"We can't stand on the laurels of people who did good, and then quit, years ago. We have to pick up and build from here. I like to tell folks we have to keep on going on."
Reaching into a desk drawer, Key brought out clipping from the Roanoke Times & World-News. "This article was written by George Kegley in 1984," he says, "and it is accurate and well-written. There's one line in it, though, that keeps me going. I could get up every morning, have two cups of coffee, read this and then charge into my office.
"Here's the line: `Williamson Road has a face only a mother could love.' Well, that was then and this is now; before we're done, we're going to have a pretty child."
Key added the change isn't happening overnight, but by looking carefully
by CNB