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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 26, 1990                   TAG: 9005290190
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BRIEFLY

TOO OFTEN, politicians shy away from the plain fact that cutting taxes means less money for popular programs. Belated kudos to Roanoke County Supervisor Steve McGraw for his lonely dissent against the 2-cent cut in the county's real-estate tax rate.

As he put it in a letter to a constituent: "[A] savings of $15 or $20 a year per taxpayer . . . is not worth the loss of well over one-half million dollars in potential services either through the School System or other functions."

THE POSTAL Service is introducing a plastic, self-sticking stamp that it says can be bought at banks' automated teller machines - saving customers' time waiting in line at postal windows. The new stamps are durable and moisture-resistant and won't stick to each other, says a spokesman. And you don't have to lick them. The only thing they won't do is make your mail travel faster.

STATE OFFICIALS are wise to limit visitors to the beach at Smith Mountain Lake State Park. If attendance had continued at last year's level, bathers would have had to start piling on top of each other - not good for tanning. More important, allowing a swimming facility to operate over capacity threatens the environment - and safety as well, if lifeguards can't keep track of swimmers. The beach will still be open to all Virginians, just not all at the same time.

MORE EVIDENCE that life isn't fair: Some people really can eat more than you and not gain an ounce, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. A recent edition of the journal published findings that genes are the main factor in determining whether a person is fat or thin. Now, at least, people who can't achieve a svelte physique don't have to feel guilty that they lack willpower. They can blame Mother.

THE "NO minors allowed" sign has been torn from a Roanoke game-room door, a week after police closed Mary Brogan's Main Street establishment to minors. Brogan doesn't allow drugs, alcohol or swearing in her place. That didn't stop police from enforcing a ridiculously obsolete city-code provision forbidding minors from congregating in "poolrooms."

Behind the 8-ball from the start on this (the code doesn't even define poolroom), the city finally took its cue from Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell and relented. Now, at least, parents of those frequenting the Wasena hangout will know where their kids are.

by CNB