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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 23, 1993                   TAG: 9307230376
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SEEK THE NEWCOMERS' OPINIONS

CONSOLIDATION. Maybe it's time we thought of a new word to unify those of the Roanoke Valley who desire healthy and prosperous growth for the area. There's too much bitterness brought out when it's mentioned, making it hopeless to inspire the unity needed to accomplish the kind of well-being sought by most of us who love this part of our nation.

We Nordts are "Johnnys-come-lately" in finding this heavenly part of the world, having moved a small manufacturing company after more than a century in a growing struggle against the urban blight that's growing around the New York metropolitan area. Soon, it will be a decade since we found this "little bit of Heaven" - God's country, indeed!

Possibly it takes an outsider to gain full appreciation of the great attributes of this section of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The regional pride (the wariness to change) may have something to do with the unwillingness of natives to recognize what course of action best augurs a happy future. Inability to see the forest for the trees, and an unreasoning residue of local prejudices may have something to do with the impasse that frustrates cooperation.

But over recent years an abundance of "new blood" has moved into this spacious valley. Might it behoove the town fathers (and mothers!) to seek the counsel of those who've moved here, expressly because they've found great potential for both working and living?

Might it be the role of the Roanoke Times & World-News to be the catalyst to get us off dead center? Might this newspaper sponsor a "town meeting" on the subject? PAUL W. NORDT JR. SALEM

by CNB