ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602090017
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS\STAFF WRITER
Two Vinton officials are leaving the town government, Vinton Town Council learned Tuesday.
Treasurer Joan Furbish is moving to New Zealand, where her husband has taken a job, and Greg Secrist, assistant town manager/engineer, is returning to his former employer, the U. S. Soil Conservation Service. He will work in the agency's Christiansburg office.
Both resignations, effective the end of this month, were announced at council's regular meeting.
Secrist, 29, said he is returning to the Soil Conservation Service because the engineering, planning and design work is more in line with the type of engineering he wants to follow as a career.
The Soil Conservation job is more in the technical aspect of engineering, while the job in Vinton is more management, said the Virginia Military Institute graduate.
In his new job, Secrist will work in geography information systems and will do considerable computer analysis, he said.
Secrist, a Buena Vista native, has been with Vinton since October 1994.
Furbish said she sees her move to New Zealand as "an interesting adventure." However, she admits she's "a little nervous."
Her husband, Dale, now director of counseling at Virginia Western Community College, has accepted a job in counseling at the Auckland Institute of Technology.
Joan Furbish said she and her husband visited New Zealand on a vacation trip last year and visited that school as part of their sightseeing. Her husband met some officials at the college and kept in touch with them through the Internet after returning home, she said. During the computer exchanges, she said, he learned of the job opening and applied.
Joan Furbish, a New Jersey native, has been in the Roanoke Valley for 21 years. An accountant, she worked for several firms before becoming Vinton's treasurer five years ago. She said she plans to seek a job in accounting in New Zealand.
Mayor Charles Hill and other members of council said Secrist and Furbish will be missed in Vinton.
But, Secrist said, he plans to continue living in Vinton, at least for the time being.
Town Manager Clay Goodman said his office will accept applications for the treasurer's post until Feb. 26 and for the assistant town manager/engineer job until March 1.
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