Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 15, 1991 TAG: 9104150077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Whenever he and his parents drive by Oak Grove Plaza in Southwest Roanoke County, where he caught the early-morning bus to camp last summer, Christopher gets excited. "We have to explain to him that it isn't time to go to camp," says his mother, Maureen Woods.
Christopher is mentally retarded. He's in a special-education class at Clearbrook Elementary School in Roanoke County, but the eight-week camp gives him a chance to keep improving his social skills while school is out.
"He really enjoys having an opportunity to be with his peers," his mother said. "That's how he learns the most. . . . It offers him an opportunity to do things he can't do on a day-to-day basis."
The children play, do arts and crafts and go on field trips to places such as the Mill Mountain Zoo.
Christopher is one of the children and adults in the Roanoke County Parks and Recreation Department's therapeutic recreation program. Begun in 1976 to provide services for people with mental retardation, the program has been expanded to include activities for people with vision and hearing impairments, mental illnesses and head injuries. There also are classes for the public in such things as sign language.
It's a regional program, with 429 participants from Roanoke County, 290 from Roanoke, 71 from Salem, 15 from Botetourt County and 18 from other localities. But almost the entire local cost is borne by Roanoke County.
A report from County Administrator Elmer Hodge to the Board of Supervisors shows that registration in all activities last year totaled 2,415. (Many participants register for more than one activity.) Of the 2,415 registrants, 46 percent were from Roanoke, 42 percent were from Roanoke County and 10 percent were from Salem.
Yet, $100,000 of the program's $150,000 budget this year comes from Roanoke County. Mental Health Services of the Roanoke Valley chips in $33,000. Fees from participants total $14,000. And Roanoke makes an in-kind contribution of staff and facilities valued at $4,000.
That rankles Supervisor Harry Nickens, who says Roanoke and Salem aren't paying their fair share for the program.
This isn't the first time Nickens has made that complaint. But this is the first time he's had the numbers to back it up.
And the unfairness is even more apparent in these tight budget times, he says. How can the county pick up the bill for other localities' participation in the therapeutic program when it can't afford $7,000 to buy baseballs for its youth leagues, he asked during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.
Hodge and the other supervisors aren't so eager to send Roanoke and Salem a bill, however.
"The city sponsors or co-sponsors programs that all of us participate in," such as Festival in the Park, Hodge said. And county residents enjoy events at city-maintained facilities such as the Roanoke Civic Center and Victory Stadium.
Supervisor Steve McGraw said, only half-jokingly, that he feared that everyone in the valley will have to start carrying a residency card and that non-city residents will have to pay a fee to drive up Mill Mountain. "I don't want to get into a battle with other localities over a thing like that."
But Nickens said the therapeutic program is different from Festival in the Park, for example, because it is a direct service that has specific costs for specific people.
Eventually, Hodge said, the county will recoup most or all the costs of the program through fees. "Once you begin to charge fees, it doesn't matter where people come from. That's where I'm trying to go."
Roanoke City Manager Robert Herbert said he was not aware of Nickens' complaint. "I'd be willing to look at it and have a discussion" with Hodge, he said.
But, he said, "You're really getting on a slippery slope when you get into that discussion." For example, the city - with its subsidized housing, public transportation and social services - takes care of needy people who come from all over the region.
"I'm pleased to hear the county is providing a larger share of the valley's helping services than I was aware of," he said.
by CNB