Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 31, 1994 TAG: 9403310313
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bent Mountain is the latest Virginia community to look at a state Department of Transportation map and realize that it lies - at least on paper - in the path of the highway that is supposed to be the Roanoke Valley's golden road to economic development and growth.
So now they're mobilizing to keep it out of their area, with a meeting tonight to organize opponents.
The group holding the meeting, the Blue Ridge Interstate Impact Network, was put together in the past week or two. Already it has sent a petition to Congress opposing a Bent Mountain route through the Roanoke Valley. The group hopes to gather more members tonight.
Depending on whom you ask, the group is either dangerously late in organizing or far too early. Congress has not approved I-73's general route and funding, and construction would be years away.
``No one ever mentioned to anyone on Bent Mountain they were even considering that corridor,'' said Lynne Florin, who, with a handful of others, has been working feverishly to coordinate the group.
``The people of Bent Mountain don't need to be scared right now,'' said Bud Oakey, a member of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and a strong proponent of I-73. ``To say it's going over Bent Mountain is very, very premature. All the map is is a general idea - it could be 10 or 15 miles away.''
Oakey said groups that come out in opposition to potential routes hurt the Roanoke Valley - and themselves - because the area needs the growth that a new highway would bring. The only north-south highway in the area now is U.S. 220, which he said is inadequate and in need of upgrading.
Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, who represents Bent Mountain, agrees. ``I think people ... don't realize they're sending a signal to the federal government to send it to North Carolina, because they [the people of North Carolina] want it. They'll be picking up a lot of economic development that should be ours.''
The Virginia Department of Transportation says the map is only for planning purposes and that much more study will be done before a route is chosen.
``The map doesn't mean a thing,'' said Transportation Department spokeswoman Laura Bullock. Because there was no money for surveying or mapping possible I-73 routes, the department pulled out Roanoke-area maps it already had and marked a route to show that it was feasible to build a road in the area, she said.
``A line on a map means something different to an engineer than it does to a citizen. Engineers start on a very general basis and then look more specifically.''
The main thing Oakey and other business leaders are concerned about right now is that the words ``through the Roanoke Valley'' appear in federal legislation authorizing the interstate.
``That's all we're looking for right now,'' Oakey said. ``Once it's through the Senate and funds are allocated, then we can look at where the dirt will be dug. If the road is within 15 to 20 miles of downtown Roanoke, it would be good.''
Roberta Bondurant, a Bent Mountain organizer who owns land on the mountain, agrees that Roanoke needs I-73, but said, ``Let's keep it on existing roadways.
``You don't have to take it through one of the most pristine and environmentally sacred areas left.''
Bullock said the Transportation Department also would like to stay on existing roads and will look first at the feasibility of I-81 and I-581.
But Griffith prefers a route such as the one through Bent Mountain because it would create another corridor for economic development. He said he would work to minimize the number of homes taken, but said growth and more people would be inevitable if the interstate goes over the mountain.
by CNB