ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 17, 1997 TAG: 9702170076
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
THE NEW River Valley will welcome home a native son when Jeffrey D. Johnson becomes Montgomery County's new administrator next month.
Johnson, 49, is a native of Narrows, where he was an all-state basketball player at Narrows High School in 1966. He's been administrator in Brunswick County; previously had administrative jobs in Craig and Nelson counties; and worked as a juvenile probation officer in Christiansburg. His wife, Deborah, is a Roanoke Valley native.
Johnson, who will succeed Betty Thomas in Montgomery County's highest administrative post, was much praised by his future bosses - members of the county's Board of Supervisors - for his administrative experience and know-how.
These attributes will be needed in a growing county that faces many challenges, not the least of which is the imperative to do better with growth management than has been done so far, while trying to reconcile the county's rural roots and urban-suburban upsurges. Johnson says he sees the challenges as opportunities, which is good.
Given his background and familiarity with the New River Valley, perhaps the character of the place - today less discernible under overwhelming sprawl - will have stuck with him, offering a resource for challenging the way Montgomery County has done things, or not done things, in the past.
The Board of Supervisors, incidentally, proved that want ads can work. It ``found'' Johnson by running an advertisement in the Virginia Association of Counties' newsletter. In contrast, the county's School Board has hired a search firm, at estimated cost of about $30,000, to help it find a new school superintendent to replace Herman Bartlett, whose contract expires in June.
Good luck to the search firm. Good luck to Johnson, too.
LENGTH: Short : 38 linesby CNB