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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990                   TAG: 9006130587
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROBERS: COST OF RESERVOIR TO GROW IF NOT BUILT SOON

If Roanoke County doesn't start construction of the Spring Hollow Reservoir soon, county residents will be stuck with an even bigger bill later, Board of Supervisors Chairman Dick Robers said Tuesday.

"The cost is continuing to grow year after year," he said. "We have to move forward."

In 1986, county voters approved a $15 million general-obligation bond issue to pay the county's share of what was intended to be a regional reservoir. But since then, Roanoke and Salem have backed out, leaving county taxpayers to foot the bill - even if Roanoke and Roanoke County consolidate.

That bill will total more than $53 million, County Administrator Elmer Hodge said Tuesday.

The reservoir, designed to supply up to 23 million gallons of water per day, will cost $33 million. A water-treatment plant will cost $9 million. Storage, pumps and transmission lines will cost $6 million.

Other costs - such as construction management, a water-rate feasibility study and a debt reserve fund - total $5 million.

Hodge said the county will sell water- and sewer-revenue bonds to raise the additional money needed for the project. Revenue bonds, which don't require voters' approval, could be repaid without an increase in real-estate taxes.

Of the four supervisors who attended the meeting - Harry Nickens was absent - Lee Eddy was the only one to express any doubts about the reservoir.

"I fully support the need for a project of this sort," he said. "[But] I'm reluctant to give carte blanche approval to go ahead full-tilt" without the chance later on to closely examine its costs and benefits.

Eddy was assured there would be many chances to do that before next spring, when construction bids are to be awarded.

The supervisors decided earlier to go ahead with construction of a reservoir providing 23 million gallons of water per day even though the county now uses only 6 million to 7 million gallons per day. Studies have projected the county will need 17 million gallons of water per day by the year 2040.

The county's permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allows construction of a 23 million-gallon-per-day reservoir. That won't cost much more than a 17 million-gallon-per-day reservoir, Assistant County Administrator John Hubbard said.

"Not to take advantage of the full capacity of the site and the permit we have would be a mistake," he said.

The extra capacity will allow the reservoir to be a backup for Roanoke's Carvins Cove reservoir and for Salem, Hodge said.

And even though the county - like the Roanoke Valley - isn't growing fast now, that might change, Robers said.

by CNB