Jim Vanhoozier

• Age: 65
• Occupation: Retired military aerospace business development manager for Northrop Grumman Corp., now Moog Components
• Community roots: Born in Christiansburg and raised in Tazewell County, where his father worked in the coal mines. Moved back to Christiansburg after high school.
• Affiliations: Kiwanis Club, Christiansburg Planning Commission co-chairman, Belmont Christian Church deacon, steering committee member and group leader
• Education: 1960 graduate of Richlands High School. Completed machine shop and real estate studies at New River Community College and was a licensed Realtor.

Election index

• Other candidates in the NRV answer your questions

Why should voters vote for you to serve on the Christiansburg Town Council?

Jim Vanhoozier: I’ve lived in Christiansburg for over 45 years. I’ve witnessed the growth from a small town to one that’s become the retail center of the New River Valley. But I believe like a business, a town needs to continue to grow or it’ll start to die. The growth needs to be managed in a way that the town can continue to provide services to the citizens at affordable cost. As a member of town council, I will work with the other members and the town staff, maintaining integrity of the neighborhood, promoting controlled growth while maintaining services to the citizens at a reasonable cost, supporting zoning consistent with the comprehensive plan and listening to the citizens and being a voice for them. I believe that my experience in business, working with town council and the town staff and as a member of the planning commission, I am well qualified to represent the citizens on town council.

First time voter Sarah Hamed, 18, asks: “When will the town ever put in sidewalks uptown? The area is inaccessible for pedestrians.” Coreen Mett, 60, also wonders about foot traffic around the New River Valley Mall area: “My question is how soon are we going to be able to cross [U.S.] 460 as a pedestrian?”

JV: I’m not aware of any proposed sidewalks in that area, except what has been proposed by VDOT when they expand Route 114. As I understand it now according to Del. Dave Nutter, there should be bids going out this fall for construction work to start on 114 in the spring of 2009. That work will start at the town limits at Dominion Drive and come back toward Schewell’s furniture. That would be the first phase. I don’t have information on when the second phase would take place. Now in addition, I do know that there is some preliminary work taking place and there has been a grant request written to expand the Huckleberry Trail, and the plan there right now is to put a bridge across 114 from the mall side over to the other side so that people could have the trail going up by the railroad back to the rec center. It’s premature to say when that will start but there is work taking place trying to find funding for that.

Doris Oliver, 74, has a follow-up question to a recent news story about Christiansburg’s failure to follow open meeting mandates in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act: “Do you intend to acquaint yourself with FOIA rules prior to taking office?”

JV: I will do everything I can to acquaint myself with that. I saw that the agenda published in today’s Current for the town council meeting tonight, the 15th of April, lists some training there for the town council members. I don’t whether that will be at that particular meeting or not. I plan on being there. Once I am successful at being elected a town council member, I would acquaint myself with that by working with the folks at the town hall.

Ryane Doyle, 23, is a Florida native who has lived in Christiansburg for the past 1½ years. She asks, “Do you intend to continue attracting retail growth in Christiansburg? What could be done to attract business to the downtown area?”

JV: Let’s address the downtown area to start with. That particular area is, of course, privately owned by individuals in town and the town itself cannot put businesses in. But they can work with the owners to do things that could help encourage business. I think the upgrading of the streets and the sidewalks that we’re doing now in town will make it much more attractive for businesses downtown. The coffee shop, for instance, I think is a great addition downtown and there could be more businesses like that. You never know — one of the thoughts that I’ve had and it would once again depend on what the private owners want to do, if they could take some of those buildings down there and maybe convert more of them so that the upper levels were like loft apartments and so forth where it would create some foot traffic in town, that in turn would generate business.

Will Christiansburg raise real estate taxes as the county plans to do?” Is there some way to maintain tax relief for the elderly citizens?” asks William June Smith, 70. On the subject of taxes, 21-year-old Danielle Akers wants to know if the town “will consider expanding town limits to increase revenue taxes?”

JV: I don’t work on the budget committee. Obviously, I’m not on town council now. I know some of that work is taking place planning the budget for 2008-2009. I don’t believe there will be a tax increase in that year. I think that the town council recognizes the fact that with the downturn in the economy, although it may not have had a big impact on Christiansburg other than through the real estate aspect of it, all of our citizens are experiencing increased costs. And gasoline is not the only thing. The food prices have gone up significantly. I think I saw a figure the other day where they’ve gone up 17 percent which is tremendous. So the town recognizes this and will continue to work to try to keep the taxes low. If needed if elected, I would work with the town council and the town staff of Christiansburg to control expenditures by working with the members to identify capital improvements, equipment outlays that can be delayed and also review other proposed expenditures for possible reduction. In doing that, we could avoid a tax increase I believe.