Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 24, 1993 TAG: 9303240079
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
COUNCIL OKS STADIUM-SEAT MONEY
A final effort failed to persuade Radford City Council not to spend $10,000 for aluminum seats at the Radford High School stadium.A group of citizens has been collecting donations for the project, which has been started. In January, council agreed to consider chipping in to help finish the job.
On a 3-2 vote Monday, council approved the expenditure after Nancy Cogswell, president of the Band Boosters, asked council to reconsider.
Calling the project "unnecessary and needless," she suggested that council could find better ways to spend tax money.
"The high school is in need of many, many things," she said.
Councilwoman Polly Corn and Mayor Tom Starnes cast the dissenting votes.
Cogswell said she was "really quite upset" to learn that council had pared back some social service agency money requests, but still agreed to consider paying for stadium seats.
"If you have $10,000 to give away, how about putting it into the library addition or the rec hall?" she asked.
In other matters, library Director Ann Fisher told council she is facing a growing problem with youngsters who use the library as an after-school hangout "just because we're within walking distance of the school."
Fisher said everyone is welcome, but her staff is not equipped to handle the daily visits of 50 to 60 kids for several hours a day.
She said many of the youngsters, mostly middle and high schoolers, come to the library to socialize and eat, not to read or study. She said there had been some incidents of violence and vandalism, but most of the youngsters were well behaved.
"They just are on their own and on the loose," she said, and restrict the use of the library by others.
"We want the kids to have something wholesome to do," she told council. "They're clearly the parents' responsibility, but for whatever reason, the parents aren't taking it."
CADRE spokeswoman Alice Gallimore called the library's contingent of latchkey kids "a major problem that needs to be addressed by the whole community."
Council also unanimously approved a resolution supporting a broader focus for the the city's Main Street program.
L.I. "Bud" Jeffries, the new Main Street director, told council the program would widen its scope to include businesses outside the city's Norwood Street and First Street downtown districts.
"The focus will be on the small business," he said.
Council also voted to accept an out-of-court property tax settlement with Norfolk Southern Corp. Under the agreement, the city would collect all but about $1,200 of what it sought when it filed suit against the former Norfolk and Western Railway several years ago.
"It isn't worth fighting over," City Attorney John "Bunny" Spiers said. He said when the suit is settled, the city will have collected some $29,000 in additional 1987-89 taxes at a cost of around $3,000 in legal fees.