By Jay Warren
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: April 8, 2008

Last night’s Roanoke City Council and Mayoral debate showed a lot of agreement and a few areas of stark disagreement.

First, on the issues of agreement, all the candidates talked of the need to grow Roanoke’s economy by bringing in more jobs, helping small businesses, and partnering more with Virginia Tech. There was also great consensus on the need to improve our schools, raise teacher salaries, lower the dropout rate, and better reach out to our at-risk teens. And almost everyone talked about the need to strengthen our neighborhoods primarily by listening to the citizens and taking into consideration their thoughts/concerns. These are the bread and butter issues that make a community strong and rarely invite strong debate. There’s nothing controversial there.

But, last night’s debate proved that Roanoke has yet to fully heal from the lingering Victory Stadium controversy. During the mayoral debate, we saw the most sparks on this issue between incumbent Nelson Harris and former Mayor David Bowers. Harris defended his record which includes votes to save and tear down the landmark structure while Bowers said sought to portray Harris as a politician whose word can’t be trusted.

The issue now bleeds over to what is to replace Victory Stadium. Council voted last year to place a new amphitheater off Reserve Ave. on the grounds of the former stadium. But that’s a decision that may not last. Only one of the ten candidates for either council or mayor would flatly declare their support for locating the Reserve Ave. location. Mayor Harris said, “I’m very comfortable with the decision to have it at Reserve Ave.” Almost every other candidate including Brian Wishneff, Sherman Lea, David Bowers, George Sgouros, Valerie Garner, and Anita Powell said they would push for a revote on the issue, preferring to either not build an amphitheater or to build it in downtown Roanoke.

There also appeared to be reluctant support for building a restaurant on top of Mill Mountain. Most of the council candidates said they could vote for it if the proposal gains the support of the Fishburn family. Decades ago, J.B. Fishburn donated much of the acreage on Mill Mountain to the city, with the stipulation that his heirs would have a say in how the mountain is developed. If the proposal hinges on the Fishburns, I’d say it faces long odds.

So, in this campaign the hot button issues are predictably hot while the everyday, run-of-the-mill issues that actually keep the city running are controversy free. Perhaps that’s a good sign.