www.roanoke.com

BLACKSBURG -- A proposal to build a new Blacksburg High School stadium off Prices Fork Road inched closer to approval Tuesday night, but not before opponents and advocates of the plan faced off before Blacksburg Town Council.

The council voted 6-1 to approve new zoning rules allowing stadium lighting and public address systems in the town. Without the zoning change, the Montgomery County School Board's request to build the new stadium in Blacksburg could not go forward.

Bob Dick, an opponent of the zoning change and the new stadium, said he was "disappointed, but I'm not giving up hope." Dick said he didn't think the zoning change made the new stadium a foregone conclusion.

Michael Breske, a Blacksburg student and a soccer player, was excited about the decision.

"We need places to play, and this is getting everything set up so we can push for the stadium," he said.

The vote clears the way for public comment on the actual stadium request on Aug. 22, when the council could vote on the controversial proposal.

Approval of a new stadium would ensure the closing and eventual demolition of the old Bill Brown stadium, which was built in the 1960s and named for a beloved coach.

Closing the stadium, in turn, would also clear the way for the sale of the old Blacksburg Middle School on South Main Street -- a plan county officials, even those representing Blacksburg, favor.

Bill Brown stadium sits behind the old school on a 20-acre lot adjacent to the downtown commercial district. County officials hope to sell that property for $4 million to $10 million, which would go toward school construction projects.

Tuesday's vote follows an announcement from the school board that, come October, it will close the old middle school to tenants who have rented space there since the building closed to public school students in 2002.

School officials said closing the building would save $80,000 in annual maintenance fees and help balance their $86.4 million budget.

But the move was a seeming shot across the bow of Blacksburg council members and activists who have lobbied for years to keep the school open as a civic and community center.

Even council members who had expressed concern about the zoning change and the stadium voted in favor of it. The exception was Tom Sherman, who said he didn't like "implied threats" from county officials.

Longtime school board member Wat Hopkins delivered a stern warning to the council in a commentary published Sunday in The Roanoke Times' Current section.

Denial of the stadium proposal, he wrote, would force the school board to build a new BHS stadium outside of town.