Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 3, 1992 TAG: 9201030084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOTEL PROJECT, TRADE CENTER BACKED
Doug Hicks is in the motel business, and he knows how important a renovated Hotel Roanoke - with a new conference center next door - would be to the Roanoke Valley's economy."It has to be done," the 40-year-old said. "We're not getting nearly the convention business we used to get. They haven't been bringing in the big ones.
"The hotel is a landmark. When people come to the valley, there are a couple of things they want to see. One is the Hotel Roanoke; the other is the star."
But Jim Martin, 59, isn't as enthusiastic about the renovation of the hotel and the construction of a conference center.
"I don't want to see a lot of taxpayers' money spent on it," he said. "If the alternative is to close it, so be it. I'd hate to see it. But I hated to see the old John Marshall Hotel in Richmond close, too."
The two were among 400 randomly selected residents of Roanoke, Salem, Roanoke County and Vinton surveyed in the latest Roanoke Valley Poll. The poll was conducted in September and October by Roanoke College's Center for Community Research.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said they favored the proposed renovation of the Hotel Roanoke, which Norfolk Southern Corp. gave to Virginia Tech in July 1989. The hotel closed four months later. A New Orleans developer is working on plans to remodel the hotel (estimated cost: $30 million) and build a conference center next to it (estimated cost: $8 million).
Another idea being considered is construction of a convention and trade center in downtown Roanoke. Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said they favored that.
However, only about 40 percent of those surveyed favored the use of tax money to help the hotel and the convention and trade center projects along.
Local residents also were split over the proposed expressway linking Blacksburg with Interstate 81 - 43 percent said they favored it, 45 percent opposed it and 12 percent were unsure.
And only one-third of those surveyed favored the testing of so-called "smart car" and "smart highway" technology on the expressway.
"It's an awful lot of money to save [a few] minutes," Hicks said. "I don't think it would help anybody, really. When you're going up there to watch Tech play West Virginia or UVa, you know you'd better leave early in the morning. . . . It might be a good thing, but there are so many other things we need worse."
"Who's in that big a hurry?" said Bernice Francis, 83.
Many local residents remain uncertain about Explore, the proposed living-history state park on the Roanoke County/Bedford County line. Forty percent of those surveyed said they were unsure about Explore, while 37 percent supported it and 23 percent opposed it.
The past year saw the firing of Explore's founding father, Bern Ewert, and the scaling down of the first phase of the project. Despite the chaos, support for Explore was slightly higher than in the 1990 Roanoke Valley Poll. The differences are not significant, however, because they are within the poll's margin of error.
"I'm in favor of a scaled-back Explore," Hicks said. "The original project was much too grand. And I think they need to attract more private money before getting tax money. . . . Hopefully, it will come to pass. But I don't think it will be any time soon."
Martin was more skeptical. "I think somebody has some delusions of grandeur" about what Explore can do for the Roanoke Valley, he said. "It's not going to attract people to Roanoke like Kings Dominion attracts to [the Richmond area]. It's probably going to get a few people traveling on the Blue Ridge Parkway to stop."
Opinions about the quality of relations among the valley governments are virtually unchanged from 1990, the poll found. Forty-five percent of those surveyed in the latest poll described relations among the valley governments as "fair" or "poor," while 31 percent described them as "average" and 18 percent described them as "excellent" or "good."
And while valley residents like the new terminal at Roanoke Regional Airport, they aren't as upbeat about the routing and scheduling of flights and the price of tickets.
Of the 400 surveyed, 203 said they had used the airport at least once in the past year.
Of those 203, 84 percent said the new terminal was "excellent" or "good."
Only about one-third said the same about routing and scheduling of flights, and only 20 percent said the same about ticket prices.
The poll has a 5 percent margin of error. That means that, if every adult in the Roanoke Valley were surveyed, there is a 95 percent chance the results would fall within 5 percentage points of those found in the poll.
The margin of error increases when the sample size of 400 is divided into smaller groups, such as by frequency of airport use.
The Roanoke Times & World-News co-sponsors the Roanoke Valley Poll.