Today the Roanoke Times coverd a developing story in Blacksburg as the old Doc Roberts site in nearing its grand-opening as the Town Hall annex. Various concerned citizens and critics are claiming that the building is environmentally unsafe due to underground storage tanks leaking gas into the ground.

Area homeowners should reach out to town officials to receive more information about the town's efforts to properly clean-up the gas leaks.

"From the ground up, the new town hall annex appears to be all that Blacksburg officials say it is: a historic building restored in a way that is energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

Beneath the surface, however, lies a mass of contaminated soil and water.

The $5.3 million project, to be unveiled today at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, occupies the former Blacksburg Motor Co., which included a gas station that operated for more than four decades before closing in 1968.

Over the years, underground storage tanks on the property leaked an unknown amount of gas into the surrounding soil. Before the town started construction, it had three of the five tanks and 259 tons of tainted dirt removed from the site.

But as recent events have shown, enough contamination remains to cause problems -- and raise questions, at least in the minds of some critics, about the safety of the building."

Read full story.