ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 20, 1996 TAG: 9602200061
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
THE PASTORAL scene that spreads out before travelers as they crest Catawba Mountain on Virginia 311 and descend into the Catawba Valley is one of the breathtaking views that define our region's natural beauty.
It's more than just a pretty refuge of openness. Close to metropolitan sprawl, visible from the Appalachian Trail, it is a kind of visual marker. It's a special place held in the collective memory of a public that may live nearby or simply pass through, on foot or bicycle or in a car and, in passing and seeing, come to share a sense of belonging, a feeling of recognition.
It should be preserved.
Unfortunately, 400 acres of those rolling, cattle-dotted pastures - sitting like a jewel in a setting of forested mountains - are on Gov. George Allen's list of state-owned surplus land that he would like to sell to help fund the 1996-98 state budget.
This is a bad idea.
If the property is sold, it would be among about $36 million worth of state properties identified for possible sale - to help pay for an estimated $72 million in college construction needs. That's a Band-aid for a gaping hole.
And this is but one flaw in a budget held together by bits of wishful thinking here and there. Given the pressure to provide more money to colleges and universities and the prospect of soaring Medicaid costs, no less a consistently conservative voice than independent Del. Lacey Putney of Bedford is speaking about "a clear need for more revenue." And he's not talking about a quick, one-time return from selling off property.
"The time has come to be frank and candid with the people of Virginia and to have the political courage to do what we know needs to be done."
Putney isn't quoted as saying the "T" word, but we will. Raise taxes.
Allen, of course, has vowed to veto a tax increase, which may be good politics, but is lousy government.
If, in trying to make too little money spread to cover swelling needs, the governor succeeds in selling the Catawba property, the state will get an estimated $1.2 million, a sum that would be useful in the short term - and insignificant in the long term.
Catawba and the surrounding region, meantime, would lose a piece of its special vistas and cultural history forever. The land, once a farm for a tuberculosis sanitorium, later was taken over by Virginia Tech as an agricultural research center. Most of that operation is gone, too. What is left is an opportunity for the state - to collect $1.2 million and open up the land to possible development, or to preserve it in a way that could be of greater, if indirect, economic benefit to the region and hence to the commonwealth.
With no need to put, say, a smart road through the Catawba Valley, it ought to be protected to the extent feasible, for the benefit of the natural character and quality of life of the Roanoke Valley and surrounding areas. The mountain beauty of these parts is a resource that should not be traded lightly or extracted without a clear understanding of its value.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB