Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 18, 1990                   TAG: 9004180595
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NEIGHBORHOOD PLANS UNOPPOSED AT HEARING BY JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER

About 50 people attended a public hearing on the proposed budget for the Community Development Block Grant program. There were several questions about the spending plan, but no one opposed it.

Marie Pontius, the city's grants monitoring administrator, said about 35 existing housing and neighborhood revitalization programs and economic development projects would be funded again in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Six new projects and programs also would be funded. These include housing rehabilitation projects on Gilmer and Harrison avenues and public improvements for a proposed town house and condominium development on Kellogg Avenue Northwest.

The city also plans to use $40,000 to provide a staff for a proposed drug and alcohol abuse council that will coordinate the city's effort to prevent and treat drug abuse.

The city manager's task force on drug abuse recommended the creation of such a council. It is expected to be composed of representatives from schools, law enforcement agencies, businesses, governments, civic and neighborhood organizations.

The city plans to contract with a non-profit agency to provide two staff members who would provide support and technical assistance to the council.

Nearly $7,000 has been allocated for a series of workshops and activities for parents and children, mainly in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, to make them aware of the dangers of drug abuse.

Pontius said this is the first time the city has earmarked community development funds for a staff and drug abuse prevention programs.

The city also has budgeted $124,000 to help finance a major renovation of the Alcohol Detoxification and Rehabilitation Center on Shenandoah Avenue that is operated by Mental Health Services of the Roanoke Valley. State funds will cover a major part of the $506,000 project.

The community development program, created by Congress in the mid-1970s, provides federal money for projects and programs for low- and moderate-income people. As a so-called entitlement city, Roanoke receives an annual allocation under the federal program.

The city will receive $1.5 million in the new fiscal year, a slight increase over last year, but far less than $2.4 million a year it received in the early 1980s before reductions in federal programs for urban areas.

In addition to the federal allocation, the city will receive $527,000 in loan repayments, land sales and other revenue from prior community development projects.

The city plans to use 43 percent of the money - more than $1 million - for economic development projects.

About 32 percent of the funds - $800,000 - will be spent on more than a dozen housing programs, mainly in inner-city neighborhoods. About 5 percent will be earmarked for the drug abuse prevention and treatment. The remaining 20 percent will be used for the city's Neighborhood Partnership program and administrative costs for the housing and economic development programs.