Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994 TAG: 9403160116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER and STEVE KARK STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the face of vocal opposition, the Blacksburg Town Council and Giles County Board of Supervisors came out with the strongest stands yet against a New River Valley route for the highway.
Both bodies passed resolutions saying they don't want any interstate coming through their yards.
Blacksburg Council resolved to "strongly oppose the routing of I-73 alternatives 5, 6, and 6A through the Blacksburg corporate limits."
Alternative 6 and 6A would generally follow the U.S. 460/U.S. 220/"smart road" path. Alternative 5 would head through Montgomery County and on through Floyd.
The resolution also said Council doesn't support any I-73 plan "that would negatively impact the planning, timing, funding or construction of the Blacksburg to I-81 direct link" - the "smart road."
The resolution supersedes a January resolution that asked the state Department of Transportation to consider Montgomery County when it worked out possible corridors for the interstate.
Council took about an hour to decide on the exact wording and order of paragraphs to include in its resolution.
Mayor Roger Hedgepeth told an audience attending the special meeting - originally intended as a budget work session - that they would have no opportunity to speak. Work sessions are "usually not well-attended, because they're boring," he said.
Recently, though, the I-73 debate has been anything but boring.
The council began by considering three resolution drafts, the products of Town Attorney Richard Kaufmann's discussions with individual council members during the past week.
What council decided not to include in its resolution may have been as telling as what it did.
Left out was a passage that said council agreed with VDOT's recommendation that I-73 would be best placed along the existing Interstate 77 route through Wythe County. That passage said economic development and tourism would benefit all communities within a 50-mile radius of the interstate.
Council also decided to remove a reference to Virginia Tech's role in the planning of the "direct link" - the proposed "smart road" - over the past seven years.
In buttressing its argument against running the interstate along the "smart road" path, council noted that the town has raised over $200,000 to "provide an impressive, scenic `Gateway' to the Town's southern entrance," which is where plans show the "smart road" would link with the town. An interstate could harm that gateway.
In Giles, the damage a highway might do to the land was also on people's minds.
"There's no question about what the people want," said Giles Supervisors Chairman Larry "Jay" Williams on Tuesday night. "They don't want this road."
And so, amid applause from many of the 60 or so people crowded into the supervisors' chambers, the supervisors voted to oppose any routing that would bring I-73 through the county.
"There's no in-between on this issue," Supervisor Bobby Compton said of the people he had talked with about the proposed highway. "But the majority have told me they're opposed to this thing."
Only Supervisor Herbert "Hub" Brown - who, because of illness, had not attended a meeting since January - voted in favor of the highway. Brown said that he felt that the road would bring badly needed economic development to the county. "`I believe it has as much positive value as it has negative," he said.
But almost all of the people who packed the meeting opposed the highway.
Newport Village Council Chairman Darrel Martin asked that the supervisors "not let the citizens of Giles County live under an asphalt shadow for the rest of this century."
Another resident said he felt that the county's greatest asset was its rural culture and its scenic beauty. "This highway would ravage the land through this area," he said.
Blacksburg asked transportation officials to involve the town in the planning of I-73 if the transportation officials decided to study further a corridor that is inconsistent with council's wishes.
But near the end of the discussion Kerns said, "Frankly, the people who we're going to send this to aren't going to have time to read any of it."
Councilwoman Frances Parsons echoed the cynicism, saying planners were going to note the resolution as "you're opposed, and there it goes in the opposed pile."
by CNB