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

DATE: THURSDAY, December 9, 1993                   TAG: 9312100292
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Short

TRAIN STATION DEDICATION PLANNED BY MAY

The station was donated to the town by the Norfolk Southern Corp. years ago, because the railroad was no longer using it. The town has been restoring it for a variety of uses.

Mayor Gary Hancock said the work is about 90 percent complete.

The town's Public Works Department has finished concrete walkways under the entire circumference of the station porch. The parking area has been paved with asphalt. Other paving and landscaping will be started in the spring.

The Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce, which now has its offices in the Pulaski municipal building, will be the first tenant of the restored building. Hancock said the move probably would take place before the end of the month.

The rest of the building will house artifacts from the Raymond F. Ratcliffe Museum and railroad displays.

The station also will serve as a welcome center and information center for visitors to Pulaski, especially after the New River Trail State Park is extended from its present terminus for another two miles into town.

It will then stop at the station, providing a corridor for even more visitors to the town. Funding for the extension was part of the bond issue approved by state voters last year for parks and recreation.

A vacant service station building next to the station will be demolished before the end of December.