SURVEY ANGERS GAINSBORO LEADER

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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 13, 1993                   TAG: 9304130313
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SURVEY ANGERS GAINSBORO LEADER
A survey of housing needs that began Monday in Gainsboro has created a controversy because the leader of one neighborhood organization was not told about it beforehand.
Evelyn Bethel, president of Historic Gainsboro Inc., complained to Roanoke City Council Monday night that neither she nor other Gainsboro residents knew about the survey until they read about it in a newspaper story Sunday.
She said the failure to notify the citizens about the survey shows that city officials don't respect them.
Bethel said she had asked city officials to notify her of any discussions with other groups about Gainsboro.
The housing survey is being conducted by members of the Gainsboro coalition and students from Virginia Tech who are going door-to-door in Gainsboro to survey residents about housing needs.
The Gainsboro coalition includes representatives from First Baptist Church, Southwest Virginia Community Development Fund, Gainsboro Neighborhood Development Corp., Total Action Against Poverty and city government.
Bethel and the Historic Gainsboro group broke away from the other Gainsboro organizations during the negotiations over the Wells Avenue realignment last year.
Councilmen William White and Delvis "Mac" McCadden said they shared Bethel's concerns.
Mayor David Bowers suggested that she contact Martin Jeffrey, a Total Action Against Poverty official who is helping supervise the survey.
City Manager Bob Herbert told Bethel after the meeting that he would like to talk with her about her concerns.
Herbert said the city prepared the news release about the survey because it wanted to notify the residents before it began.
The survey is designed to provide information to use in developing a five-year plan for the repair and new construction of homes in the Gainsboro area.
"Before we begin to address the needs, we saw clearly that we needed to talk with the residents and find out what areas they see as needing to be addressed," said Alvin Nash, a co-chairman of the Gainsboro Coalition Housing Task Force.
The survey will help determine the number of rental, vacant and owner-occupied houses, the age and condition of the housing stock,the residents' housing plans and the kinds of housing programs that would be the most effective.
Nash said all individual comments given by residents will be confidential. The surveyors will have proper identification, and residents are encouraged to ask for the identification.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB