Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 28, 1993 TAG: 9304280383
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The increase - subject to a public hearing and formal vote - would add about $5 to the average customer's quarterly bill.
Hollins District Supervisor Bob Johnson urged the board to support the rate increase, saying county taxpayers should not have to subsidize sewer rates by more than $300,000 a year.
It's not fair, Johnson said, to make residents who live in outlying areas pay for a service they will never receive.
"I'm on public sewer, and I anticipate paying for it," he said.
Without a vote, the board agreed to hold a public hearing on implementing the rate increase by July 1. No hearing date was set.
Johnson said a sewer rate increase would not break the board's pledge not to raise taxes for a year if county voters approved an $18 million bond referendum last fall.
The board's decision came during a work session, followed by a public hearing on the county's budget that takes effect July 1.
Forty-eight speakers representing county employees, teachers, human service agencies and cultural organizations asked supervisors to consider a variety of spending requests.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge has recommended a $65,500 increase in contributions to human service and cultural groups. Most of the money would come from $300,000 in new revenue from an increase in the county's tax on motel room charges.
Some groups that would get county funding for the first time include Mill Mountain Theatre, $8,500; Mill Mountain Zoo, $4,000; Science Museum of Western Virginia, $10,000; and the Comprehensive Health Investment Project, $5,000.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the budget on May 11.
At Tuesday's work session, supervisors agreed to end the practice of denying health insurance and other fringe benefits to nearly a dozen "full-time temporary" employees.
The cost-cutting measure evolved during recent years as Hodge sought to meet a rising demand for county services without adding to the ranks of permanent county employees.
Vinton District Supervisor Harry Nickens suggested that county staff had played a "shell game" in which they held down the number of permanent workers by hiring full-time temporaries who did not receive benefits.
Hodge denied that he had deceived anyone, noting that expenditures for part-time wages had not grown much in recent years.
The supervisors agreed to spent $31,435 to give permanent status - which includes benefits - to 10 full-time employees who have worked for the county for 12 months or longer. The board also agreed to reduce the hours of 13 other full-time temporaries with fewer than 12 months service.
Supervisors made it clear they do not want county employees working 40 hours a week without benefits for an extended period of time.
"If you need some full-time people, come and tell us," board chairman Fuzzy Minnix told Hodge.
by CNB