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

DATE: TUESDAY, August 31, 1993                   TAG: 9308310083
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Greg Edwards
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT'S BEEN FUN, EXCEPT FOR I-81

As you grow older, a period of 2 1/2 years seems to fly by with the same speed that a month passed in your high-school days. A compressed sense of time is one thing you gain instead of lose as the years go by, and I'm not here to argue that it's some sort of blessing.

But only a short 2 1/2 years ago, I moved from the business reporting staff in the Roanoke office of this newspaper to the New River Valley bureau to cover Montgomery County government and 9th District politics. I took the place of Pete Mathews, who returned to his old job of copy editing in Roanoke after getting a year's practical experience in the reporting trenches.

I've had a great time here at the bureau's office across from the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg. The reporting staff is young - with some noteworthy exceptions - and enthusiastic, and they're too busy doing their jobs to lapse into the bouts of self-destructive introspection that sometimes plague other newsrooms. The readers of the Roanoke Times & World-News and its New River Current are fortunate to have such a dedicated bunch of young news professionals working for them.

It's been an interesting 2 1/2 years, but I'm not talking about the budget deliberations by the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and School Board that seem to be never-ending and have taken up much of my time.

The minutiae of county budgets is not the stuff that makes great drama, but the petty quarrels among board members and boards over budgets sometimes make good comedy.

I have enjoyed working close to two major universities and appreciate the information resources that Radford and Virginia Tech can supply. I have also had my eyes opened to the complications and social implications of two major universities growing up in a rural region such as the New River Valley. The cosmopolitan, well-paid university community is at striking odds with a native population that is often underpaid and, in recent years, unemployed. Where you find such polar opposites, the sparks inevitably will fly.

The diversity of the populations creates wide divisions that often show up in the public schools, one arena where the two sides must meet and co-exist, like it or not. In my time here, divisions along these socio-economic lines have occurred over the issues of school funding and over the proper role of religion in the public schools. If the New River Valley is ever to grow beyond its parochial self, the challenge of community leaders is to show the diverse elements of the community that they share a common vision. I suspect that everyone - poor and rich, educated or not - hopes for a safe and secure future for their children and grandchildren. That hope can provide the glue that could eventually bind the people of this valley into one community.

During my stay here, I've enjoyed the beauty of the New River Valley. Etched in my memory are the sights of Montgomery County's Ellett Valley, the mountains of Giles, the farmland along Virginia 100 in Pulaski County and most everywhere I've been in Floyd County. The natural beauty of the valley is an asset that its residents should guard jealously and work to preserve.

It would be a crime if any more haphazardly planned strips like the one along U.S. 460 that joins Christiansburg with Blacksburg are allowed to intrude on the landscape.

One thing I won't miss when I leave the New River bureau is the daily commute from my home in Roanoke. Interstate 81 over Christiansburg Mountain is a bear of a highway that gets surlier as the years go by. Ending the commute over that "dumb road" will eliminate a tense and tedious hour and a half from my day. I would have gladly moved to Montgomery County long ago except my relief would have come at the expense of my wife, who has a very good job in Roanoke County, and my two daughters, who are well established in school there. With another of the bureau's commuters, Assistant Bureau Chief Jack Chamberlain, recently retired, the I-81 patrol will soon be left solely in the capable hands of Virginia Tech student and bureau part-timer Rob Freis. To Rob, I wish hours of happy motoring.

One of the toughest parts of my bureau job has been writing these Reporter's Notebooks. We in the bureau take turns doing them and they only roll around once every couple of months; but, still, I've always found that they hang over my head with the same dread as a trip to get a tooth filled.

As I wondered out loud once again if I had anything worth saying in this space, fellow bureauite Kathy Loan came to my rescue. "This one ought to be easy," she said. "Just make it your swan song."

She, of course, was right. I'll be returning to Roanoke early next month to rejoin the business reporting staff. What better chance than this column to tell all the friends and acquaintances I've made during my stay here: Good-bye and have a great life.

\ AUTHOR Greg Edwards is a Roanoke Times & World-News staff writer.

by CNB