ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996 TAG: 9604230089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: & now this . . .
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 23, 1996.
A public preview of plans for a new railside linear park downtown
will gegin at 6:30 in City Council chambers tonight. The time was
incorrect in an item in Monday's paper.
Falling out of the sky and crash-landing your fuel-less plane in a Botetourt County field apparently has its benefits.
Just ask the Long family of Cherry Hill, N.J.
When Virginia Tech officials learned the Longs' crash happened on the way to visit Tech see whether Christine Long wanted to attend the school, they set up some special treatment for the trio.
The Longs' rented plane ran out of fuel over Buchanan early this month on the way to the Virginia Tech Airport. After a day in the hospital, the Longs decided to visit the campus anyway. Their injuries were relatively minor, and they were already here, they reasoned.
"They gave me a Virginia Tech Airport hat and a map with all the airports in the area on it," said Bruce Long, who was piloting the plane. His wife, Barbara, and Christine got T-shirts.
The Longs took a guided tour of the campus and then lunched with Tech President Paul Torgersen and his wife.
"It was great," Bruce Long said. "Everybody knew who we were."
The family is recovering, for the most part. Father and daughter had only bumps and bruises. Barbara Long suffered a broken wrist, which was treated in Roanoke. Once back in New Jersey, though, she started having back pain. Bruce Long said doctors believe she fractured several vertebrae in the crash.
Still no word, though, on whether Christine has chosen Tech or Towson State University in Maryland for next year.
"I think Tech was ahead until the crash," Bruce Long said.
- MATT CHITTUM
UVa cashes in on new Cavaliers
The marketplace has spoken, and it says it likes the new University of Virginia logos.
The school last April dumped the scowling Cavalier whose Vandyke beard, plumed hat and knitted brows represented the school for 10 years. This year, using four new and two old designs on its T-shirts, key chains and knickknacks, UVa's merchandise sales have risen despite an industrywide slump.
The scowling Cavalier had not been a big seller, school officials said.
The school still uses the ``Crossed Sabers'' as the official logo for the football team and the ``V-Virginia'' or ``Split-V'' for the other athletic teams. Those logos already were popular with athletes and fans.
The four new designs, which include a galloping Cavalier on horseback and a stylized ``Cavaliers'' topped with a plumed hat, are featured on other apparel.
Steven Heon, licensing director for the school's athletic department, said royalties were up 5 percent, year-to-date, from last year, when the school collected $411,000 from more than $13 million in retail sales of licensed merchandise.
"The industry as a whole - athletic licensed merchandise - has seen a decrease," Heon said. ``We haven't seen a major decline, and I think a lot of that has to do with our new logos." He said the new logos have proved more popular outside Charlottesville.
``I think a higher percentage of nonathletic-related folks are buying the new logos than athletic folks, which is fine because that's what we wanted, to create something that would be more attractive outside our fan base,'' Heon said.
- ASSOCIATED PRESS and MEGAN SCHNABEL
Time to talk railwalk
Former Mayor Noel Taylor talked about a park along downtown railroad tracks as long ago as 1990. Mayor David Bowers has been pushing the idea for at least the last two years.
Now, residents can see what all the fuss is about.
Preliminary designs for Roanoke's new railwalk will be unveiled in City Council chambers Tuesday night. The city administration is soliciting comments from residents before finishing touches are put on the drawings.
The three-block-long park would run along the south side of the Norfolk Southern tracks between the Virginia Museum of Transportation and the pedestrian bridge to the Hotel Roanoke.
The linear park is estimated to cost about $2.4 million, and will be built in two phases. Construction is scheduled to begin this year. Earlier this year, the city borrowed the money to build the first phase, part of a bond sale that voters approved in 1994.
Michelle Bono, city spokeswoman, said the administration wants residents to look at the plans before construction begins and offer suggestions, which could be incorporated in the final plans.
A similar process was used in designing the $7 million walkway.
The unveiling takes place at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers.
- DAN CASEY
Minority ruled on referendum
A minority of the voters in Roanoke County derailed the plan for a new Cave Spring High School.
A minority?
Democracy is supposed to be the rule of the majority. But it depends on how you define majority.
Twenty percent of the county's registered voters defeated the bond referendum this month. Eighty percent of the voters either didn't go to the polls or favored the bond issue.
The county has 46,407 registered voters. Only 16,439 (35 percent) cast ballots in the referendum. The rest stayed home.
Only 9,334 - 20 percent of registered voters - said "no." Fifteen percent of the registered voters, 7,094, cast "yes" ballots.
Based on those numbers, Ed Kohinke, a former member of the Board of Supervisors, thinks the referendum outcome didn't prove that the plan for a new high school was wrong.
``It was simply the proverbial `20 percent that votes against everything and everybody,''' Kohinke said.
If county officials could improve their execution of a referendum, he said, they might win if another vote were held on the school proposal.
- JOEL TURNER
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: 2 UVa logosby CNB