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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 6, 1990                   TAG: 9006060362
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

MEALS TAX, TRASH FEES TO GO UP

After public hearings that attracted no comments, Town Council raised the meals and lodging tax and solid-waste collection fees Tuesday night.

The unanimous votes mean the meals tax, which also will apply to alcoholic beverages, will increase from 2 percent to 4 percent. Trash collection fees will double to $5 a month.

Under the $8,454,600 budget for the next fiscal year, real estate taxes will stay at 17.5 cents per $100, and personal property taxes will remain at 45 cents per $100.

Council also set a June 19 public hearing on a proposed increase in water rates of 11 percent to 16 percent.

On another matter, council authorized Town Manager John Lemley to negotiate with the owners of a barber shop and beauty salon on East Main Street that will be displaced July 1 when Montgomery County takes over the downtown block that formerly housed Angle's Super Market.

If it can be arranged, the shops could move across the street to one of three buildings Christiansburg agreed to buy in January. The town intends to demolish them for municipal parking and expansion of town offices.

But that won't happen until at least 1992, and some of the merchants are expected to leave before then. That could open up space for the beauty and barber shops.

Council also agreed to pay about $65,500 for the right to sell water to the Corning Inc. plant. Blacksburg now serves the plant, and its council is expected to make a final decision on the transfer next week, Lemley said.

by CNB