ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 TAG: 9703250065
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN
When I attended Auburn High and Middle School from 1974 through 1980, I changed a great deal but Riner didn't.
Each day, I took a bus from my Plum Creek home and passed the time with my nose in a book as we meandered a circuitous route through Walton, Bethel, Childress and other communities before the big yellow bus made its way into Riner.
The pungent smell of manure always managed to bring juvenile reactions from us, well, juveniles. Once that smell hit, we knew we had reached Riner and its cluster of dairy farms. We pulled up the windows, grabbed our bookbags and readied ourselves to exit the bus and enter the school.
In my early high school years, a sneaky act of youthful rebellion for us was skipping lunch or a class to walk down to the Riner Food Center for a Dr Pepper or Mr. Pibb. Once we were old enough for a driver's permit, a more adventurous escape was driving down the road a piece to a neighborhood store at Virginia 8 and what is now Meadow Creek Road.
The Riner Food Center is still there, along with other retail stores and a First National Bank of Christiansburg branch that sports an ATM machine (Who'd a-thunk it! What's next, a traffic light to rival Floyd's?). But the store down the road was converted several years ago to a veterinarian's office. Over the years, as Riner and its subcommunities grew, so did the school: new-brick additions contrasting with the old architecture of the main building.
While Auburn High School hasn't changed at its core, Riner is seeing its dairy farms give way one by one as families tire of grueling farm work with little financial payback. In their places grow profitable housing developments, small businesses and maybe even a golf resort complete with a clubhouse, an overnight lodge and more than 100 homes.
While change is inevitable, some Riner residents grew concerned a year or so ago that change was coming too fast and with little planning. That concern resulted in the formation of the Friends of Riner, an organization with about 75 people on its mailing list, a newsletter and a home page on the Internet. Monthly meetings are held at the volunteer Fire Department beside the high school.
A group of urban and regional planning students from Virginia Tech are working with the Friends of Riner to survey the community about growth and development issues.
The 31-question survey was distributed to some 300 Riner, Bethel and Pilot residents. More than 100 surveys have been returned and the results are still being compiled. The questions dealt with land uses, public utilities, and the importance of cultural events and community.
The information gleaned from the survey "will be used to develop a vision for growth in the Riner area," according to a press release from Andrew Garman, one of the graduate students overseeing the survey. They will give the information to the Montgomery County Planning Department to consider when updating the county's comprehensive plan.
The results of the survey will be presented at community meetings on April 1, 3 and 4 at 7 p.m. in the Auburn High School library. Residents are encouraged to attend and make comments about specific concerns.
For more information about the survey or the meetings, call Garman at 951-1435 or Ed Davis, 951-4096.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB