Loan for M/S Center Backed

ABB loan is well below budget

The five County Supervisors who were present for the Monday night

meeting unanimously approved a resolution from the Industrial

Development Authority (IDA) seeking the Board's support of a $400,000

loan application to the Lake Country Development Corporation. Not

present for Monday's meeting were ED#1 Supervisor R. E. "Dickie"

Abbott, ED#7 Supervisor Lottie Nunn and ED#8 Supervisor W. B.

Claiborne.

The money will be used to design and upfit some 6,000 square feet of

space in Building One at Riverstone Technology Park for Virginia Tech's

Modeling and Simulation Center. In approving the resolution for the

borrowing application, the County agreed to pay the interest only on

the debt for the first 18 months of the Center's operations since

prospective tenants have asked that they be provided space in the

Center rent free for the first 18 months.

  The Tobacco Commission had earlier given $1.2 million for the project

with $900,000 of that earmarked for equipment for the center with the

remaining $300,000 for salaries.

In seeking approval of the borrowing resolution, IDA chairman Garland

Ricketts told Supervisors that the recent ABB expansion project is

coming in well under budget and consequently, the Authority will not

have to borrow as much money for that as earlier projected. Yesterday

IDA Interim Executive Director Patsy Vaughan confirmed that the amount

of money to be borrowed for the ABB project will be some $2 million

less than earlier projected.

"While we cannot use these funds for another project," Vaughan said,

"it does mean that we will have to borrow less money overall." She

explained that a few small bills on the ABB project are still out and

the account cannot be closed, probably until June when everything is

cleared.

Monday night Brian Caldwell, a hydrologist with Tetra Tech, one of the

partners in the Modeling and Simulation Center, presented an overview

of work that will be carried out there. He said the center expects to

have a number of government contracts with both the Navy and the Army,

as well as work with Environmental Ingenuity, the Conservation

Management Institute and the Ward Burton Wildlife Federation, Northrup

Grummon and Frontline Testing Services of Charlottesville. The upfit is

expected to be completed by October.

In response to a question, Caldwell said five of the ten people

currently working in the Center are local residents, with the other

five being Tetra Tech employees who expect to relocate to the area.

He projected employment to reach 39 members within the next two years.

Jack Dunavant of Halifax Town Council who was present for the joint

session of governing body officials, questioned Caldwell about the

Center's work with the government. "I'm always a little concerned about

Big Brother's snooping on us," Dunavant said, noting that rural areas

are often treated as "sacrifice areas" by big government and big

corporations. He said too often rural areas become the dumping ground

for sludge and other waste materials taken from more urban areas.

Caldwell pointed out that Tetra Tech is in the business of cleaning up

sites, but he also pointed out that some of the work that will be

conducted at Riverstone will be "highly confidential if not considered

'classified'."