ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Call it the executive session that wasn't.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors called a special closed-door meeting Monday to discuss the proposed purchase of land in Riner for a new elementary school.
Chairman Henry Jablonski and Vice Chairman Ira Long requested the meeting after a negotiating session Friday with Ronald Salmons and the bank that holds his family farm in trust. The county wants to buy 30 acres of the property behind Auburn High School for the new school.
Though the board voted to go into executive session, members soon realized they couldn't conduct any business because a full board was not present. Supervisor Nick Rush was not at the meeting because of a previous commitment.
County Attorney Roy Thorpe said Tuesday state law allows special meetings to be called either with five days' notice or when all members attend the meeting and sign a waiver of the notice requirement.
The board spent most of its time behind closed doors Monday determining if it could meet without Rush and trying to see if he could get to the meeting, Thorpe said. But Rush arrived at the courthouse after the meeting ended, Thorpe said.
Jablonski said the board would discuss the Riner site again at its 7 p.m. Thursday meeting at Auburn High School, after holding a public hearing on the proposed county budget.
Salmons' attorney, Frank Terwilliger, said Tuesday that while a meeting was held last week with county negotiators, "at this point, nothing's been resolved."
"If the threat of condemnation wasn't there, he wouldn't be interested in selling at all," Terwilliger said.
The purpose of the negotiations is to maximum the price the Salmonses would be paid for the property, minimize the acreage that is taken and minimize the impact on the remaining property, Terwilliger said.
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