Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 31, 1993 TAG: 9308310248
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
County voters will be asked in separate ballot questions Nov. 2 to approve the sale of bonds for the $1.9 million renovation and expansion of the Blacksburg branch of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library and the $2.9 million construction of a new county Health and Human Services building.
The supervisors' voted 4-3 for the library project and 5-2 for the Health and Human Services Building.
At a meeting on Aug. 23, the supervisors tied 3-3 on the library bonds and were headed for a similar stalemate on the new county office building before that issue was tabled.
Supervisor Jim Moore of Blacksburg, who was absent from the Aug. 23 meeting, cast the deciding fourth vote Monday night in favor of the sending the library bond question to voters. And his vote helped the health and human services bond question pass by a wider margin.
"The Good Lord's timing seems to be extremely fortuitous," Moore said as discussion opened on the library bonds. Moore referred to a heavy rain Friday afternoon that breeched the Blacksburg library's troubled roof, ruining about 900 books.
Moore, a member of the committee that planned the library improvements, also defended $150,000 included in the bond issue for the computerization of the entire regional library system. Figures provided by the library show that $65,000 in annual operating costs could be saved by automating, paying for itself in less than three years, Moore said.
Board Chairman Ira Long of Prices Fork and Supervisors Joe Stewart of Shawsville and Henry Jablonski of Christiansburg voted against the library bonds. Stewart and Jablonski, like Moore, face re-election this fall.
Long and Jablonski said they opposed the library referendum because they feel the project is too big and too expensive.
The proposed Blacksburg project would not, as Jablonski suggested, prevent building a branch library in some other area of the county such as Elliston, Supervisor Joe Gorman of Blacksburg said. The Christiansburg library and the proposed Blacksburg library combined would take up only a little over half the library space that state guidelines say the county should have, Gorman said.
The Friends of the Library plan to kick off an effort Sept. 20 to get the bond referendum passed. The public will be invited to view the final plans for the project between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at the library on Draper Street in Blacksburg.
County supervisors expressed concern that the health and human services building project has no similar group to work for the passage of its bonds. The board and other county employees can provide the public with information about the two bond questions but cannot in their official capacity or on county time work for their passage.
Jablonski and Stewart voted against putting bonds for the health and human services building on the ballot. Stewart has favored using a building already owned by the county, and Jablonski has said the project was rushed through with too many unanswered questions.
The proposed building would be on Pepper Street in Christiansburg and would bring the county Health Department, Social Services Department and other human service agencies together in one building.
County Administrator Betty Thomas said rent paid by the state would compensate the county for $2.6 million of the $4.8 million in principal and interest the county eventually would pay for the $2.9 million building.
In other business Monday, the supervisors passed a resolution asking the Virginia Transportation Department to study the possibility of constructing a full-service interchange at the intersection of the planned extension of the Christiansburg bypass with Interstate 81. The interchange would provide access to a new county industrial park on the south side of the highway.
by CNB