Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 10, 1993 TAG: 9308100193
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Previously, the county's animal control ordinance had forbidden any dog older than six months from running at-large off its owner's or custodian's property under any circumstances.
The amended law, which passed by a 5-0 vote, allows dogs to participate in:
Supervised obedience training classes or shows.
Formally sanctioned field trials.
Lawful hunting when accompanied by their owners during hunting season or bona fide hunting or field trial dog training.
Agricultural work such as herding or guarding livestock.
Unless they are covered by the new exemptions, the law still forbids dogs from running at large, which is defined as "roaming, running or self-hunting off the property of the owner or custodian and not under the owner or custodian's immediate control."
County Attorney Roy Thorpe explained that the law requires hunters to be in the field with their dogs. And the law also does not allow someone to violate the county's trespassing laws, he said.
Also at Monday night's meeting the board heard presentations by architects involved with the planning of a new branch library in Blacksburg and a new health and human services building in Christiansburg. The supervisors plan to ask county voters to approve a bond referendum this fall to pay for the two buildings.
Nancy Hurst, a library board member from Blacksburg, said the proposed renovation and addition to the current Blacksburg library will cost $1.978 million, of which the county will need to raise $1.75 million.
Richard Fitts, the Virginia Beach architect designing the renovation, explained that he is designing a 16,000-square-foot building or a building 27 percent larger than the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library headquarters in Christiansburg. Figures show the Blacksburg library gets that much more use than the Christiansburg library, he said.
Fitts showed the supervisors plans and a model for a sloped-roof building that will sit with its back to Draper Street and front to a new parking area that will provide 133 parking spaces. Following Fitts, Robert Fry, project manager with Kinsey Shane and Associates of Salem, showed the supervisors some potential site layouts for a new health and human services building that will be located on a 3.9-acre parcel of land between Roanoke Street and Pepper Street in Christiansburg.
Fry estimated the new building, which would house the Health Department, Social Services Department, and other agencies such as the Office on Youth, will cost between $2.5 million and $2.7 million. He proposed a 36,000- to 38,000-square-foot building of either one or two stories, which would provide some room for growth.
Supervisor Joe Stewart, however, suggested that the county could use the old Health-Tex plant on Roanoke Street, which the county recently bought, for the health and human service agencies and spend only a tenth of what it would cost to build the new building.
In other action Monday, the supervisors:
Approved the purchase of 142 acres from Dale D. Teel and Freda W. Teel for an industrial park for $850,878 or $6,000 per acre.
Agreed to ask the county's state legislators to seek a repeal of a new state law that requires people adopting animals at the county pound to agree to have them sterilized within 30 days of the adoption. Supervisor Joe Stewart said the number of dogs adopted dropped from 26 in June to six in July after the law took effect.
by CNB