Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

John Chambliss, assistant Roanoke County administrator, is one of the county's longest-tenured administrators. He is retiring this month.

John Chambliss, one of Roanoke County's longest-tenured administrators, is retiring this month after 36 years of service.

After an education at what used to be called National Business College, now called National College, the Lunenburg County native went to work for Roanoke County in 1973 in the finance department. He rose to lead that department and became assistant county manager in 1986. He served a stint as interim county administrator this year, and he served under six other full or interim county administrators: Bill Clark, Bruce Mayer, Don Flanders, Paul Mahoney, Elmer Hodge and Clay Goodman.

Chambliss has been the county's liaison on several regional efforts -- most recently, the Western Virginia Regional Jail. He said he pondered his desire to be the county's permanent county administrator, but decided he'd retire from municipal government and stay on track to take on another major task -- becoming Grand Master of Masons in Virginia for 2011.

This week, Chambliss -- always one to stay out of the limelight -- reflected on his tenure and the future.

Q: What are some of the more significant changes in Roanoke County since you arrived here?

A: One of things that was facing us then [when he started] was annexation. When services extended from a city into the county, once development occurred, the city petitioned to annex that property and that tax base into the city. For many counties, that became their demise ... the annexation in 1976 that filled in that little area between Roanoke and Salem, expanding the economic base of Roanoke city, was very telling of what the future of Roanoke County was going to be. The result left Roanoke County looking like a doughnut around two cities. That made us pay a real price for development costs.

Q: During your tenure, county residents rejected the idea of a merger with Roanoke, but in recent years the county has been a leader in several regional projects, such as the Western Virginia Water Authority and the Western Virginia Regional Jail. In recent weeks, however, we've seen one example of that, the city-county shared law enforcement firing range and driving track, fall apart. What future do you see for regionalism in government?

A: I am an advocate of that, but [with any potential regional project] we have to look at it to see if it serves the purpose and meets the need of the participants. And you can't talk about regionalism without talking about flexibility, or about protection or control that comes into play.

When we have things like the juvenile detention center, the regional animal shelter, even the regional jail, we had a common need and it was prudent to look at it to see if it was more cost effective. Everybody wants what best for me. ... When looking at the downside or the protection side, there are questions of who's in charge, and then the control aspect of it. And sometimes the relationships are short-lived.

Q: Is there another public administrator in the Roanoke Valley that has particularly impressed you in dealing with regional projects?

A: It would be hard to pull one out because several were influential and vital, quite frankly, depending on the nature of the project.

With the regional jail, Jay Taliaferro from Salem was quite helpful with his knowledge of engineering and background dealing with construction projects. [George] "Chip" Snead with the city of Roanoke in dealing with the [juvenile] detention center was quite helpful in a number of ways. Jesse Hall, Roanoke's [former] finance director, was helpful when putting together the financial models for projects along the way. Chris Whitlow from Franklin County [assistant county administrator] worked on a couple of things and had unique contributions that have made the projects come together in good fashion.

Q: You've been a volunteer with the Cave Spring Fire and Rescue Squad for 13 years. What drew you to that?

A: There were two things: One was to put something back into the community, rather than just being there, and at that the time I was mentoring with the fire department as one of my roles here. I felt that would give me a better opportunity to know exactly what their needs were.

Q: What do you expect to be the greatest challenge for county government in the next decade?

A: I think it's going to be providing infrastructure for future growth, the need for developing a strategic plan to get there cost effectively. ...

This is going to be exacerbated by less funding for transportation and roadways from the state. So how do we face that challenge, not just how to build roads, but to maintain and keep them up?