Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 21, 1993 TAG: 9310210009
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-17 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By Stephen Foster staff writer
DATELINE: PILOT LENGTH: Medium
That, and a lack of any other similar facility in the New River Valley, they said.
VMH wants to build the home on a 30-acre site in the Possum Hollow section of Floyd County, near the Montgomery County line. It would house 16 children.
"Why here?" a group of citizens asked at a meeting at the Pilot Community Center between citizens and VMH officials.
"Economics," replied Janaka Casper, VMH's executive director.
"This is a bargain for us," said Stephen Duncan, VMH's director of operations. The owner of the site has offered to sell it for $60,000, a figure some citizens said was expensive, but which Duncan said was offset by other factors in the deal.
"I just think it's a good deal," said Casper, citing a soil analysis study that had shown the land can handle a septic system for the home, a creek and barn on the site, and the scenic beauty.
The home would be used to treat children from the New River Valley who would normally go to other homes around the state, said Susan Duncan, director of Tekoa Inc., the corporation formed to run the home. They may be homeless, abandoned, abused, or have psychological disorders - "kids who need services to pull themselves together."
VMH initially tried to set up the home last year in Giles County, but was unable to when that county would not change its zoning laws. Stephen Duncan said several sites were looked at before settling on the Possum Hollow site.
Without zoning, Floyd County has no legal authority to prevent the home from being built.
"That was not the determining factor" in deciding to build in Floyd County, Casper said Wednesday.
The meeting Tuesday was called to allow the citizens - about 60 of which attended - to ask questions of VMH. A meeting was held last week in the Floyd County courthouse when no VMH officials were able to attend.
A murmur filtered through the cramped room when Earl Frith asked what was the meeting's point if the project was already permitted. Someone mentioned' that the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development still hasn't decided if it will approve a $350,000 loan to fund the home's construction. Department officials were in the audience listening.
Many in the crowd argued vehemently that VMH is taking the nature of Floyd County winters too lightly, that snow and ice makes roads impassable, and 16 children could be in danger if not properly prepared.
They wanted to know how the home would be run, and who would run it. The staff has not yet been assembled.
Finally, Gayle Stone, one of the two mediators called in to facilitate the meeting, urged the crowd to forget missed past opportunities - or lack thereof - to speak, and to work with the chance they had.
"You don't have to like them; it just has to work," she said.
by CNB