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

DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994                   TAG: 9403140206
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By KIM E. HUMMEL CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: RICH CREEK                                LENGTH: Medium

RICH CREEK HAS SPIRIT TO SPARE

Rich Creek, population 670, is like a blip in the landscape. Blink and you'll miss it as you speed by. Yet ambition is high and sense of community strong, as symbolized by the new town community center, under development for the past three years.

The town, located along U.S. 460 abutting the West Virginia border, has renovated the newer section of the old elementary school into space for town offices, a Lions Club meeting room, cafeteria and half-size gym, plus future library and recreation space. The old part of the school is rented as a furniture warehouse.

The $152,000 project arises from the combined effort of taxpayers and Town Council, Lions Club, downtown merchants' association and volunteer laborers. There's no magic grant from state or federal governments - too many strings attached. This project relies entirely on local resources and ingenuity.

"There seems to be a good spirit in Rich Creek, a kind of spirit that makes you want to get involved," said Mayor Gary L. Eaton.

The town negotiated with a neighboring industry and the Giles County Board of Supervisors to buy the old school building in 1990 for $65,000. With enrollments for kindergarten to fourth grade at Rich Creek down to less than 100 in recent years, the county vacated the school and transferred the Rich Creek students to Narrows.

The town spent $47,000 for a new roof over the new section of the school. The leakage was so bad, water stood in pools on the floors and had damaged some of the walls.

The Rich Creek Lions Club, a long-time community booster, spent another $40,000 for materials, plus volunteer labor, to make renovations for the club's meeting room and to assist in other aspects of the project. The club used its connections to obtain new furniture for the town offices at below-retail cost. All this on top of $31,000 invested over the years to develop the ball field and pave the parking lot, according to Emory Eaton, father to the mayor and a past-president of the Lions Club.

"We're real proud of it," Emory Eaton said. "Everyone in town is real proud of it."

The school building is valued because it provides enough space for large gatherings for town meetings, concerts, banquets, church services and the like. It is the single remaining developed space of its size within town limits, according to the mayor. Rental fees all go toward building upkeep and may one day provide enough income to allow for an expanded community recreational program.

The one-floor building retains the look of the red brick school on the outside but has been designed for the modern age on the inside. Waist-high wood paneling lines the walls. The floors are carpeted and the walls are of smooth plaster. The overall impression? Slick.

At the same time, cartoon-like wall murals painted years ago by two high school students remain along the hallways. Saving the building, along with its depictions of Tinker Bell and Captain Hook, has everything to do with preserving community identity, the mayor said. "We feel like it's a real showpiece."

The future library is supplied with books and paperbacks donated from surrounding local libraries and private donors, with shelving cut from the old classroom doors.

The one lacking element, children's books, will be purchased using funds raised in a community quilt raffle last fall, according to Betty Coffman, head of the library committee.

by CNB