Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 27, 1993 TAG: 9403180018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The county has undergone many changes in his lifetime and during his years of public service. Many more changes are in store. The decision in the District C supervisors' race between Stewart and Democratic challenger Jim Smith should come down to this:
Stewart is too lodged in the past to provide progressive leadership for the future. He needs to leave the board. Electing Smith would accomplish this.
In recent years, Stewart has made it his badge of honor to vote "no" on important issues before the board. No to the proposed "smart road" linking Blacksburg to Interstate 81; no to bond issues for capital improvements; no to the open-space amendment to the county's comprehensive plan; no to school-board budgets; no to spending for almost anything.
Or if he doesn't like a decision that's about to be made, he'll just up and walk out of the meeting. Or he'll fail to do his homework on issues, then complain he doesn't understand them.
Stewart reportedly has boasted that he made a fortune off his lands with just a high school education. So what's the connection, he wonders, between better education and economic development? If he needs to study up on this question, let him do so - but not on the public's time.
Obstructionism is not leadership. Neither is it good representation for Stewart's constituents, who include many farmers and landowners like himself, or for the county's interests as a whole. We can't see that Stewart's modus operandi serves any purpose, except to deepen the cultural divides in the county among the Virginia Tech community, the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg and residents of its still-rural areas.
Smith, 53, is a resident of Elliston and long-time employee and union man at General Electric in Salem. Making his first bid for public office, he says he was persuaded to run by District C friends and neighbors who feel they're being shortchanged - on schools, roads, rescue squads and fire protection - by Stewart's lack of leadership on the governing board.
Smith, we hope, would not only make a greater effort to look after his district's interests. Practically by default, he'd also have to adopt a more enlightened approach than Stewart has shown toward matters of countywide interest.
Smith favors the smart road, for instance, because of its considerable potential to create new jobs in the New River Valley. He supports the bond issue on the Nov. 2 ballot for a new library in Blacksburg and new health and human services center. He also says he "would keep open the doors" for greater cooperation between the New River and Roanoke valleys on projects that could benefit the entire region.
Smith is not likely to be a big spender. But, he pointedly pledges, "I would not vote no to everything." The county facing changing times could stand a few more yea-sayers.
Keywords:
POLITICS ENDORSEMENT
by CNB