Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994 TAG: 9403300152
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The county Board of Supervisors agreed Monday night to remind the Transportation Board that a route through Pulaski County could be an alternate to veering far to the east through the Roanoke Valley and Martinsville, or piling up traffic in bottleneck tunnels on Interstate 77.
The Transportation Board's first recommendation had been bringing Interstate 73 through parts of Montgomery and Floyd counties, where some residents have objected to the idea, east to the Roanoke Valley. The argument was that this route would do the most for economic development.
The second choice was routing it over the existing Interstate 77 and part of Interstate 81 through Bland, Wythe and Carroll counties, which would be the least expensive route.
The Pulaski County route came next. The decision will be made at the federal level, and the county will push for at least the top three priorities to be studied.
"We said we hoped politics wouldn't play any part in it," board Chairman Jerry White said of the route getting top priority from the state. "To look at what was selected, it had to be something besides common sense."
Wythe County Board of Supervisors Chairman Tom DuPuis recently sent a letter to the Pulaski board asking for it to endorse the route through Wythe. He said the route would have a lower construction cost and less of an environmental impact.
The Pulaski board's response was that it had already stated its preference and would stick with it.
The board also stuck with its preference for having Montgomery County, rather than Giles County, in Pulaski County's toll-free calling area.
Don Reid, Bell Atlantic telephone manager, told the board that grouping Pulaski and Giles counties is part of a statewide program which will see $22.7 million in rate reductions by grouping contiguous localities into the same exchanges.
Reid said the assumption was that exchanges next to one another would have a community of interests. While the Pulaski and Pearisburg exchanges are contiguous, he said, the Pulaski exchange is not right next to the Blacksburg and Christiansburg exchanges.
But the supervisors thought they had a closer community of interest with those parts of Montgomery County. "Since I've been here, I've never called anybody in Pearisburg and I don't think I ever will," Supervisor Bruce Fariss said.
Reid said he's received similar messages in letters from customers on the proposal involving Giles. He said the State Corporation Commission would probably schedule a public hearing on the matter where all sides of the issue can be aired.
Fariss asked if Pulaski had to be grouped with Giles. "No sir," Reid said. "When we're reducing rates by $22.7 million, if you don't want to be part of that, we'll be glad to continue taking your money."
In other business Monday night, the supervisors were asked by Friends of the Pulaski Theater to budget $10,000 toward the group's work in preserving the former movie house and renovating it as a cultural arts center.
Friends spokesman John Sadler said the organization has uncovered an easement belonging to the Elks Club behind the theater which would affect renovation plans. Any major fund drive will have to be delayed at least until spring of 1995 to work this out, he said.
The group has already raised about $3,000 for its preliminary work, he said. It has also joined the League of Historic American Theaters and can now apply to that organization for consulting architects, who charge no consulting fee but would require expenses such as travel costs.
by CNB