Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 12, 1993 TAG: 9305120253
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I think the valley and the region won today," Vinton District Supervisor Harry Nickens said after the budget was approved on a 4-1 vote.
Nickens urged his colleagues to approve the one-time grant, saying Explore will need to demonstrate local support when it seeks an estimated $1 million from the General Assembly next year.
Nickens steered the board away from a direct showdown on the $100,000 for the living-history state park, which is scheduled to open in eastern Roanoke County next year.
Nickens, who sits on the state board that oversees Explore, came up with a compromise that won over at least one critic, Windsor Hills District Supervisor Lee Eddy.
Eddy suggested limiting the grant to $50,000, saying the exact amount of the appropriation was not that important.
"Whatever we do, it will be more symbolic than substance," Eddy said.
Nickens made a counterproposal: Give Explore $50,000 with no strings attached, but require it to raise $150,000 in new donations from private contributors before it gets the other $50,000.
"I could live with that," Eddy said.
Board Chairman Fuzzy Minnix cast the lone dissent on the budget to note his constituents' opposition to spending county funds for Explore.
"I know what the people who sent me here want," he said. "I think one day Explore will be a great thing, but I am unable to support it at this time."
The Explore grant will come from revenues generated by an increase in the county motel tax. The General Assembly approved the tax increase this year, provided the county spend the money on tourism projects.
Before the board approved the budget, Hollins District Supervisor Bob Johnson mounted an unsuccessful bid to increase raises for some county employees.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge included $1.2 million in the budget for raises. About half of that money would be used for 3 percent merit raises for all 650 full-time employees. The other half would be used for additional raises for 345 workers who were identified in a salary survey as being underpaid.
Because of budget constraints, Hodge was able to fund only two-thirds of the salary survey recommendations this year.
Johnson suggested the board could implement the full recommendations - without spending any extra money next year - by delaying the start of the raises until Oct. 1.
The plan was defeated 3-2. Johnson and Catawba District Supervisor Ed Kohinke supported it. Eddy, Nickens and Minnix said they would rather try to implement the full salary survey next year.
"You people are playing parliamentary games with people's lives," Johnson said after the vote. "I think that's pathetic."
The $77.4 million budget for 1993-94 represents a 6 percent increase in general-fund spending over the current year.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***