ELLISTON RESIDENTS SEEK RELIEF FROM FLOOD THREAT

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 15, 1992                   TAG: 9201150186
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
ELLISTON RESIDENTS SEEK RELIEF FROM FLOOD THREAT
The night of Jan. 3, residents along Brake Branch in Elliston watched helplessly as surging flood waters threatened their homes.
Monday night, they turned their attention to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, asking them to do something about the flooding threat.
The supervisors agreed to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to go ahead with a study of a proposed flood-control project along the creek, but the residents were told that work could not get under way until 1993 or 1994.
"Those people need something done now," protested Supervisor Joe Stewart, who represents the Elliston area. The board agreed to contact federal and state legislators to see if any emergency money might be available to speed up the work.
Storm clouds Jan. 3 dumped from 6 to 7 inches of rain on the mountains above Brake Branch and the South Fork of the Roanoke River. Debbie and Paul Bandy spent the following day pumping water and cleaning mud from their basement. Water overflowing the branch collapsed a basement wall.
Bandy, joined by her neighbors, including Mary Alice Starkey, pleaded for help.
Brake Branch is filling up with rocks and trash, which is going to make the flooding problem worse, Starkey warned the supervisors.
The flood-control plan proposed by the Army would remove the trash and debris from the creek and cut the brush from its banks, creating a clean corridor up to 25 feet wide along the creek.
The supervisors passed a resolution asking the Army to study the project's feasibility as long as it doesn't cost the county any money.
If the project proceeds past the study, the county will have to chip in roughly $50,000 to help pay for easements and the cost of project's construction.
Another Monday night board vote may benefit the county's tax dodgers.
The supervisors agreed to ask Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, and Del. Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg, to ask the current session of the General Assembly to allow the county to offer amnesty to delinquent taxpayers.
The supervisors want permission to forgive the penalty or interest or both on delinquent property-tax payments in order to encourage tardy taxpayers to pay up. A similar amnesty on state taxes a few years back resulted in $21 in collections for every dollar spent to promote the amnesty.
Roughly $4 million in county tax payments are delinquent, stretching back over several years. The supervisors, faced with bleak revenue projections for the coming year, would welcome an improvement in delinquent tax collections.
The board formally agreed Monday to County Administrator Betty Thomas' recommendations for next year's budget, which would hold raises for county employees to those based on merit only, place a moratorium on new capital outlay requests, and apply $886,038 left over from last year's budget to capital expenses, because they don't require year-to-year funding.
Based on current tax rates, county tax revenue is expected to grow by only 2.2 percent - or $555,378 - next year.
Also Monday, the board:

Chose Democrat Ira Long as chairman. Last year's chairman, Republican Henry Jablonski, becomes the board's vice chairman.
Long, who began his third term on the board this month, became chairman for the first time. Democrats won a 4-3 majority on the board in November's election.
He has no private agenda for his tenure as chairman, Long said.

Heard a plea from a Christiansburg man who says that the public's rights are being threatened by over-aggressive police.
James W. Mensh of Christiansburg asked the board to support a state law that would require the state police to notify the chief of police or sheriff of a locality when they planned to make an arrest.
"We're turning into a police state and it has to be stopped," said Mensh, who was mistakenly arrested by state police and FBI agents in 1989 when they came to his home with a warrant for his son.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB