The Progress-Index from Petersburg, Virginia • Page 21

Tri-City News Serving The Growing Souths ide Virginia Area PETERSBURG Thursday, August 15, 1968 COLONIAL HEIGHTS HOPEWELL IT Sen. Gray Turns Down Wye Visit WAVERLY State Sen. Gar-, land Gray indicated today he did not plan to meet with civil rights loader the Rev. Curtis W. Harris in a tent in Waverly's Wye area.

Harris suggested this in a telegram to Gray Wednesday. Although he had not seen the actual telegram. Gray said, he was aware of its contents. Gray said he would not met with Harris, president of the Virginia unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, under Harris' conditions. The senator noted he previously had stated the circumstances under which they might meet.

Gray had replied to Harris in response to an invitation to ali state legislators to visit the Wye area last Saturday. He said he would not be able to attend the Virginia State Given Grant For Faculty PETERSBURG Virginia State College will receive 521, W9 to provide faculty grants, according to announce ment made today by the Foix Foundation'. Three predominantly Negro colleges in. Virginia shared in million, program grants given by the' foundation. The program grants were made in support of a variety of programs Tor Negroes, both in predominantly Negro colleges and others in mostly white institutions.

Hampton Institute received a $9.693 faculty study grant and Virginia Union University at Richmond was one of 17 colleges sharing in a $128,500 grant to help improve business office operations at the colleges. Virginia Union University also will share in a $84,832 grant with 11 other colleges in a program permitting business office staffs to serve internships in the business offices of larger schools 'Get-Acquainted -With -Poverty- 'our," but would talk with Harris later. Conditions specified by Gray in he letter were that the meeting should take place in his office at the Bank of Waverly after Aug. 15. He said he would meet with Harris and several representatives from the Wye.

He also indicated in the letter i he thought the Waverly tour was an effort to embarrass him. He told the civil rights leader his desires had apparently been prompted by the 1967 Virginia General Assembly elections in which" Harris had been defeated by Gray. In the Harris telegram Wednesday, the Hopewell minister agreed to meet Gray on 'Aug. 19 in the Wye "to see for yourself the want, the need and deprivation" of the section's residents. "The format of this meeting involves the question of your positive, concern for Virginians locked and bound in poverty and.

the best approach to the sources available for eradicling 'depredation and resructuring minds," Harris told Gray. The proposed meeting marks the first time Harris and Gray have had a direct two-way correspondence since the SCLC- sponsored Wye project began in June. Harris has continued to attack the state senator for his lack of attention for the area, in which he owns several houses, while Gray has- had little to say. Harris concluded his telegram saying, "Only through this direct contact arrangement can re- Chesterfield Gets Recreation Body Staff 1'Jioio by A. D.

Hopkins Jr. School Board Met Wednesday Night For First Time In New Administration Building New Chesferfiefd Program No Kindergartens Seen sponsible citizens and leaders honestly an'd intelligently and in good faith begin to suggest and take deliberate measures toward eradicating those demoralizing conditions existing throughout the state of Virginia. "For this reason I am not sble to meet in your office at the Bank of Waverly but we will, however, touch'base with you at your office in. the bank at 1:45 p.m. Aug.

19 and travel to the Wye section together." CHESTERFIELD The administration of rfield County schools is not counting on any of the county's 19 kindergarten additions being open by September, the school superintendent told the school board Wednesday. Dr. Roy A. Alcorn said that, while at least one of the. additions may be'open, the administration is making plans for emergency housing for the kindergartens.

The system is considering renting space from churches in the vicinity of many of the schools and using the old Bellwooc school, formerly an administration annex. About in rental cost is involved, said Alcorn. Since' the Commonwealth's attorney's of fice has advised bond funds can not be used for rentals, and since there is no item for emergency rentals in the budget, the money will either have to be guarantet by the board of supervisors transferred from another item the school budget. Some of the temporary facili ties will be used only for about ew weeks before the children ill be in the new units, said Al- orn. In other cases the children will be there until January.

One reason for the delay in ompleting the schools 'has been ifficulty in getting doors and windows because of strikes. Anither has been a shortage of con- labor. Assistant Supt. W. W.

Gordon old the school board the sys- may well have to ask for 20 more elementary teachers than authorized in the 1967-68 budget jecause enrollments are exced- ing projctiohs at many schools. Places where enrollments-seem ligh are Bensley in the kindergarten level, Enon at grade two Curtis in the first and second Falling Creek in kindergarten Fisher In kindergarten, secom and fifth, Forest-View at all lev els, and Southhamptpn in the fifth grade. About 80 vacancies still exist among the already authorized po- itions, said Gordon. Most of these positions are in the usually- critical areas of high school. Conspicuously absent from the discussions of the school board was any mention of the conference held between school board officials and the U.

S. Department of Health, Eeducation and Welfare last week in relation to a threatened cutoff of federal assistance to the school system. Board Chairman G. Levis Crump told reporters the boarc would meet with its attorney, Frederick T. Gray, before dis cussing the matter.

However, Crump any decisions regarding the cut off would be made in that means open session will the full board present. The Mid 1 i a representative of th board, John Russell, was no present Wednesday. About $900,000 in federal fund By A. D. HOPKINS JR.

Progress-Index Staff Writer CHESTERFIELD C. J. Purdy, supervisor of Bermuda District, has been appointed chairman of a new county recreation committeee which could become one of the most important units of the county government. The chairman of the board of supervisors, Irvin G. Homer, made the appointment as an all- day board meeting drew to a close Wednesday.

The committee will be expected to study the recreational needs of the county; its powers will be advisory only. But the influence of advisory groups in Chesterfield is often great, and the commission's advice will help determine whether or not the county spends a great deal of money on recreation and whether or not it enters into numerous potential programs which could determine the way of life in terfield County. The committee" will determine the recreational needs of the county. It will be responsible for de-ciding what should be done with existing recreational facilities and it will recommend which facilities should be included in a Purdy set the first meeting of i approved little league footbalL the committee for Aug. 22.

We haven't particularly dis. Horner said that while no full- time recreational positions are authorized in the current fiscal budget, the board of supervisors could probably hire a recreational program director out of the unappopriated surplus if the committee should be ready to move before the next fiscal year begins next July. The interest in a program was' pointed out by a group which appeared before both the supervisors and the school board when the groups met independently Wednesday. A delegation of parents from the Chalkley School area appeared to request that the supervisors or the school board take steps to improve the playground at the school for use in little league football and baseball programs. Tlie supervisors indicated they would provide goal posts for the playground if the parents could get the school board to designate the position in which they should be erected.

The parents volun- eered to put them up. The school board said it would study the situation, but didn't couraged it either," he added. One of the parents asserted, "Kids are going to play football, and they're going to play football." The virtue of the little league program is to vide proper equipment and supervision to keep injuries to a minimum, he The school board agreed to look into the problem. This means the school board probably will place the matter' in the hands of Russell and Newcomb for consideration before ft is brought" back to the board. The Chalkley situation is not unique.

The playground was not completely' improved when. school was built and parents complain of rocks on.th* playing fields. The school board chairman, G. Levis Crump, thaU white it is better, to improve'fee playground when the school is first constructed, often not 'permitted that Last" year the school board Involved. The cutoff is threat- county school when it is built, ned if the system does not com- Horner said the committee ly with guidelines calling for probably will be expected bo in- omplete elimination of recogniz- terview and recommend for em- ablv Negro and recoenizablv I( ment a skeleton crew of pro- amy Negro ana recogmzamy fessional rec reational personnel, vhite schools by September 1969.

aiore i mpor tant, he said, would Chesterfield's current rate of be their duty of establishing and progress would eliminate the dual maintaining a corps of volunteer structure by 1970, estimate school recreational workers Tins is going to be an Indian oard spokesmen. committee, not a chiefs' In a rare split vote, the school sa jd Executive Secretary M. joard turned down a motion Burnette. which would have allowed an ex- "We could use 60 softball dia ception to its policy permitting monds in this county without any only children who live within the trouble," commented Homer, "so system to attend the schools, they're going to have plenty to The reason for the policy, ex- do." plained Mrs. Marie Morris, who Representing the county gov- is in charge of administering the ernment, besides Purdy, is As- policy, is that hundreds of re- sistant Executive Secretary John guarantee it would put them up.

The superintendent, Dr. Roy A. Alcorn, reminded the school ooard the.board has "in no way spent $8000 "in" buying playground equipment'to beef school system's physical education program, said Alcorn, but some of the equipment has 'not been installed yet. None been installed so far at Chalkley, the parents said. Nursing Home Contract Near quests are received each year for children from outside the system.

The reasons vary from simple choice to extreme hardship cases. Restoration Possible Ex In Register? PETERSBURG Much was expected from the Historic Buildings Survey being made' in Petersburg this summer, but what is termed the "biggest was announced today. It is that the Exchange Building on West Bank Street is under consideration by the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission for the National Register. Randall Bialias, historian with the survey team here, said this "might result in restoration of the building-by a federal in-aid." He said the National Register is a listing of nationally significant historic and architectural buildings and added that listings I are "few and far between." The reason for considering the Exchange Building is architec tural, not historical. Biallas des cribed it as "the best example in Petersburg of the Greek Re vival period.

He said it is national significance. He reports: "This outstanding Greek Revival building is noteworthy because of its fine pro- rortions, portico, dome and cu- wla and wreath window detail the frieze." This building, which now as the city's police court and headquarters, was erected about 1342 for the Petersburg Exchange, incorporated in 1S39. Commission merchants displayed their grain samples in the rotunda for the inspection of millers, but the system proved unpopular and was abandoned, whereupon the building became "an imposing white elephant." Information about the old building is sparse -beyond the record of the original and subsequent owners in the deed.books of the clerk's office of Hustings. Court Biallas' research disclosed the fact that it once served, in 1862. as the Bank of the City of Petersburg.

It has also served as a lodging house. A portion from the best account available reads: "Through out the years it has been usec for offices of one kind or another It was described in 1856 as 'the best building in point of archi lecture we' have in the city, am he worst in point of cleanliness or "Whether they were optimists or wags, there were some who insisted it should be offered to the Confederate States government as a capitql. "The building is one of the best evidences of the influence upon Petersburg of the classical revival in American architecture, examples include the Courthouse, Tabb Street Presby- ierian Church and Washington Street Methodist Church." Tlie city of Petersburg bought the building in February 1927 for $25,000. It will be vacated when the buildings for police headquarters and lower courts, under construction on Courthouse Hill, are completed. Individuals and organizations interested in preservation and restoration have eyed this structure, but it is in such a bad stele of repair that the cost seemed prohibitive on the local level.

They will be elated over the possibility of the old Exchange Building being entered in the Na- Longmire. There also are two school board representatives, John Russell of Midlothian District and C. Lynn Newcomb, supervisor of health, physical education, and safety for the school system. Russell has been one of the most outspoken advocates of a joint committee which would coordinate a county recreation program and provide for more effective utilization of county school resources in physical recreation programs. He has been veny critical of the lack of physical activity in the daily lives of high school students in the county- tional Register.

Newcomb, as physical education supervisor for the system, has been an advocate of the "lifetime sports" concept of physical training. Under Newcomb the physical education departments of the schools have shown an increasing interest in teaching golf, archery, bowling and general physical conditioning, as well as the traditional school sports of football, baseball and basketball. Newcomb on his own, without county funds, established a jogging club to promote adult interest in that growing activity. Besides these four, there are citizen representatives from each of the county's six magisterial districts. They are E.

D. Gardner of Manchester District, Clinton Carter of Midlothian District, Olise C. Meredith of Matoaca District. Roy Taylor of Chester in Bermuda District, George Ehly of Dale District and W. W.

Horner of Clover Hill District. CHESTERFIELD Supervisors have authorized the county administration to let a $1,056,912 contract for construction of a 98-bed nursing home pending the outcome of negotiations with R. L. Bullifant Co. of Richmond.

This contract will be financed by county funds and $660,000 in Hill-Burton Funds. The nursing home is to be located behind the county complex at Chesterfield Courthouse. The county will let a separate contract for about $25,000 for offsite improvements relating to the nursing home. The supervisors also agreed to adopt a new water rate schedule which would not affect the hase cost of water but would provide two low-cost steps for extra- large users. The additional steps provide that the next 22,500 gallons above 3,000.

gallons be sold at 40 cents per c.c.f., the next 200,000 at 30 cents, the next 300,000 at 20 cents and all over 509,000 at 18 cents About the only users which would fall into' these bracket; right now would be Reynold: Metals, which requested th change in scale, and one or tw other large companies. The nev scale does not affect the pric the large companies pay for th first several thousand gallons however. This price is the sam whether the user uses an add Uonal million gallons or only few gallons. The new schedule, in which th Balderson is a 1961 Douglas Freeman High School, ook a B.S. in sociology at Vir- inla Commonwealth University nd took graduate studies at University of Richmond.

He was a planning intern and sociological consultant in the ad- anced planning section of" Richmond City Planning Commis- ion. This job involved in updating and revising master plan into a com- document. Balderson also was assistant for the development of Richmond's model cities application. County planner Howard A. tfayo asked that he be allowed hire Balderson for the posi- ion, which is not authorized la the budget until Jan.

1. The money will be jecause a senior planner has aeen authorized for the office, but Mayo has not been able to locate a man of the caliber wants. By delaying the search for that employe, Mayo will be able to recruit from the men who finish their masters' degrees in January. lop three steps are cheaper, i effective immediately. The supervisors hired a re search technician to help in th county planner's office.

Stanley Ryan Balderson Jr. is now director a youth recreation program at Grace House Inc. on Floyd Avenue in Richmond. Gray To Speak COLONIAL HEIGHTS DeL Frederick T. Gray has been named the principal speaker at a five-day teacher conference to be held by the Colonial Heights school system beginning Aug.

26. Gray will address a joint session of faculty and administrators at 9 a. m. Aug. 27 in Colonial Heights High School auditorium.

i subject will fag "New Horizons in Education." Coordinating the conference program is Elementary Supervisor Robert P. Taitz. Staff Photos H. Jfcor To Structure, Which Was Erected About 1842 Exchange Building On West Bank Street Commission Merchants Once Displayed Grain In Rotunda.