TAP WANTS VALLEY TO LOBBY TO GET COLLEGE

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

DATE: TUESDAY, January 12, 1993                   TAG: 9301120409
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TAP WANTS VALLEY TO LOBBY TO GET COLLEGE
Total Action Against Poverty wants Roanoke Valley localities to join forces to seek a public four-year college in the valley.
Cabell Brand, president of TAP's board of directors, said Monday night that a state-supported, baccalaureate degree-granting college is needed here so economically disadvantaged people have easy access to the broadest possible range of education and training.
Roanoke is the largest metropolitan area in Virginia without a public four-year college or university, he said.
Virginia Western Community College is in Roanoke, but it provides only a two-year program.
Brand urged Roanoke City Council to join with the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors and Salem City Council to create special study commission to investigate and promote the location of a four-year institution in the valley.
Council took no immediate action on Brand's request.
The idea of a four-year college in the valley has been discussed intermittently in recent years, but no action has been taken.
TAP's support for the idea is an outgrowth of a Poverty Strategy Task Force's recommendations last year for reducing poverty.
Brand told council that the task force made 176 specific recommendations for reducing poverty in the area served by TAP. But he asked for council's help in only a few areas.
In addition to the four-year college proposal, Brand said TAP wants council to:
Join the effort to urge the federal government to restore funds that have been cut for job training and to urge the state to provide funds for training for the poor. Annual federal funding for job training in the Fifth Planning District has decreased from $12 million in 1978 to $1.5 million this year.
Work closely with other valley governments and economic development agencies to help bring new industries and more jobs to the valley.
Brand said the staffs of government economic development teams should meet monthly with the staff of the Roanoke Economic Development Partnership to examine how they can "create greater synergy of mission and effort to increase the number of good-paying jobs for area residents."
Brand said TAP's own economic development efforts have included the Henry Street Music Center and the supermarket at Melrose Avenue and 19th Street Northwest.
Endorse a proposal in the General Assembly to provide a state earned income tax credit to help the economically disadvantaged.
Follow Salem's example and create a line item in the city budget to help fund the Comprehensive Health Investment Project that provides health care for children in low-income families.
Increase local funding for TAP's Transitional Living Center that provides a shelter for homeless people as they try to become self-sufficient so they can return to private housing. The center can accommodate 75 people, but current funding limits it to 50 occupants.
Schedule a public hearing to determine if the recommendations of the city's Substance Abuse Task Force need to be updated and whether there are unmet needs in the area.

CITY COUNCIL IN OTHER ACTION Roanoke City Council was urged to provide more money for the upcoming school budget and do what it can to get the School Board to provide larger pay raises. Leaders of the Roanoke Education Association said the ranking of the city's salaries has dropped from the first to the last in the Roanoke Valley in the past 12 years. On a statewide basis, the city's rank has decreased from eighth to 64th. Councilman James Harvey said the city and other localities are caught in a bind in funding schools because the state won't pay its share. Council asked City Manager Bob Herbert for a recommendation on a request by Carter Road residents for the installation of three stop signs between Brandon Avenue and Grandin Road. Jonathan Apgar, a spokesman for the residents, said motorists use Carter Road as a shortcut between Brandon and Grandin. City traffic officials said Carter Road doesn't meet the criteria for stop signs. Council rejected a request by the Terumah Foundation Inc., for exemption from real estate taxes for a proposed church site on Grandin Road Extension. Because there is no church on the site now, council members said they can't exempt the taxes.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB