ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 5, 1996 TAG: 9603050061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
Moving regional cooperation efforts a bit further, Roanoke and Roanoke County governments expect later this year to hire consultants for advice on joint purchasing of employee health insurance and steps toward unifying police and fire communication systems.
While praising those efforts, leaders of both jurisdictions on Monday said the General Assembly's decision to put off allowing a local gas tax could jeopardize Valley Metro, the only form of mass transit in the Roanoke Valley.
The statements came during a status report on cooperative efforts that was delivered to a luncheon meeting of Roanoke City Council members, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors and administrators from both governments.
"Cooperation is not just alive and well, it is prospering. We've already accomplished a great deal," said Tom Brock, past chairman of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, an organization that has taken the lead in pushing regional cooperation.
"We really want to find ways to work together to become more efficient, because of the limited amount of resources that we have," Brock added.
A consultant's report released last May after a year of study advised the two governments that significant cost savings could be achieved by cooperative efforts in seven areas.
Since October, joint city-county employee teams have been concentrating on four of those: trash collection, planning and development, employee health insurance, and emergency communications.
Efforts toward the latter two appear furthest along. On Monday:
A communication team recommended the two jurisdictions jointly hire, at a cost of $20,000 to $25,000 each, a consultant who would recommended the best way the city and county could upgrade their overloaded and aging police and fire communication systems.
In the short term, systems would not be merged. But both will need major upgrades in coming years, and a consultant could tell them how to do that in a way to make them compatible so they could be combined in the future.
Currently it's difficult for fire or police in the county to talk via radio with counterparts in the city, and vice versa.
A health insurance team also recommended hiring a consultant to evaluate cost-saving opportunities for joint health insurance purchasing. Besides the city and county, a purchasing cooperative could also conceivably include Salem; city, county and Salem schools; Vinton; the Roanoke Regional Airport Authority; the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority; and the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority.
Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield contracts with all of the entities for similar health services, which could be a major advantage in consolidating the purchase of health insurance.
But all the plans operate on different calenders, have varying rate structures and levels of local funding. Because of those reasons and the swiftly changing business of health insurance, a consultant is needed, county Finance Director Diane Hyatt told the group.
Groups studying development and refuse collection said they'll continue to meet. The former is trying to devise a no-hassle standardized building system.
Among other things, the latter group is considering moving to automated pickup in the city with one-armed bandit style trucks the county now uses. Run with only a driver rather than three-man crews the city now uses, they are far cheaper to operate.
Most of the talk at the meeting concerned Valley Metro, which is facing the gradual loss of federal funding, its chief operating subsidy. City Council this year dipped into its general fund to make up the loss of $190,000 in federal subsidies. But there's great doubt that the bus service could continue years down the road without major tax increases.
Valley Metro serves about 5,000 riders per day, almost all of them in the city.
The city and county urged the General Assembly this year to enact a special gas tax district and to allow the proceeds to used to fund the bus service. Legislators, however, approved only a study of the problem statewide.
"I find in the General Assembly the mentality that Virginia studies things to death," county Supervisor Bob Johnson said. "We need to get on with this."
"I don't think it's mincing words," Mayor David Bowers said. "The shaft has come down from Washington, and it's come down to this table. There's the possibility of going forward with this concept, or an alternative concept, if one comes up, or the loss of mass transit in our community."
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