ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1997 TAG: 9701200020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Dublin Town Council and area transportation officials have worked out improved access plans for the Dublin Town Center on the former Burlington Industries property along Virginia 100.
Most of the property acquired from Burlington and added to the town in a boundary adjustment between Dublin and Pulaski County is being used as an industrial park. But a Town Center, which already has a new First National Bank and will soon have a new municipal building, was also carved out of the tract.
The Town Center is also slated for a new Dublin post office, replacing the aging downtown facility with its lack of parking space. The one being planned will measure 17,600 square feet and have more than 40 parking spaces.
Council approved a lot line revision Thursday night for the post office site to allow better positioning of the building and parking facilities.
But access to all these improvements had been hampered by problems with the main entrance to the Town Center off Virginia 100, on Dublin Park Road. It is a problem which has been irritating local residents and town officials for months.
Since the southern part of the property is mainly industrial, much truck traffic comes out of it along Newbern Road or comes off Virginia 100 into the center. The roads could not accommodate the wide turns that large trucks must make, and they tended to block car traffic.
Mayor Benny Keister, Town Manager Gary Elander and council members Peggy Hemmings and Benny Skeens met with Virginia Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Dan Brugh to seek a solution. They came up with one which will cost an estimated $29,000.
More than half of that cost is for asphalt paving, with the rest coming from site grading, curb and gutter, and removal of pavement and curb.
The work involves reopening a part of Newbern Road which had been closed, and moving the entrance to the Town Center off Virginia 100. Southbound vehicles will have to travel an eighth of a mile farther to cross the median, then turn back to connect with the entrance, but Skeens said it would be worth it to ease the congestion. Skeens also praised Brugh for his help in finding a traffic solution.
Elander also reported that Dublin Elementary School students in Sherry Vaughn's class are working on an Internet home page for the town. He said the project is part of a competition in which the school could win some new computers.
However the project fares competitively, he said, "we'll have a home page on the Internet without any cost. ... We're going to be off in cyberspace." He said connections could be made with home pages from such places as the New River Valley Planning District Commission, the state of Virginia, and congressional office of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon.
Council has a public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 28 on a proposal to expand the New River Resource Authority with entities from Montgomery County. It got a preview Thursday of how that hearing might go.
Several citizens expressed concerns about the agreement changing the NRRA board representation so Pulaski County, with an additional Dublin representative, would no longer be in the majority. The main concern was whether Pulaski County could veto solid waste coming from localities beyond the participating NRRA jurisdictions, since the landfill will be in the county.
John Jordan, an NRRA employee, said he had been having to bite his tongue to keep from refuting the misinformation on which people were basing their concerns. "When you make a decision, please make it based on factual information," he said.
He noted there have been no problems with the current landfill, located in Radford, even though Radford has had minority representation on the NRRA board.
Under the proposed expansion agreement, the board would have three members each from Radford, Montgomery County and Pulaski County with one of the three being from Dublin. Current NRRA members are Radford, Pulaski County and Dublin, and any one of the three could kill the agreement to add Montgomery County, Virginia Tech and the towns of Christiansburg and Blacksburg.
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