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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994                   TAG: 9403300154
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-9   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

LOW-INCOME HOUSING APPLICATION DRAWS OBJECTION

"We should respond strongly," Vice Mayor Polly Corn recommended Monday when council learned of the request by Willow Woods apartments to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Councilman Bob Nicholson - a member of the city's Welfare Board - agreed. "The city of Radford ... far exceeds its share [of subsidized housing]," he said.

Nicholson suggested council determine how many subsidized housing units exist in the city and cite that number when it responds to HUD.

"Certain communities are being earmarked for special housing," he said.

Corn said the city "cannot provide services to the project."

The Willow Woods application comes at a time when the city's Welfare and Social Services Department has reported it doesn't have enough money or personnel to handle its current workload. Department Superintendent Suzanne Glass has said the city's high percentage of subsidized housing units has swelled the ranks of clients seeking various services from her office.

When numbers of subsidized units go up, so do applications for services, she said Tuesday.

Council asked City Manager Robert Asbury to convey its concerns to HUD, which is reviewing the Willow Woods application.

In other matters, council made sure city residents won't be unpleasantly surprised by pet snakes in public, voting 4-1 to approve a compromise ordinance that restricts snakes and other reptiles to secure enclosures at all times. Council has been debating the issue since last year, after a request from the Police Department.

Nicholson cast the only no vote. "I'm not satisfied with the ordinance the way we have changed it," he said. The measure approved was a far cry from the original proposal council OK'd last fall that would have banned snakes and other wild or exotic pets altogether.

In other business, a request from a representative of a local fraternity to amend the city's noise ordinance was deflected to City Attorney John Spiers. John Berardino complained that his fraternity, Sigma Pi Sigma - which is not yet nationally chartered nor recognized by Radford University - has been cited for party-related noise violations from five to 15 times a semester.

Berardino suggested disgruntled partygoers turned away at the door sometimes later complain about noise to the police, and the fraternity is cited summarily. "We want to confront our accusers," Berardino said.

He also offered to buy sound-level meters for the police to determine whether the noise level at the fraternity's parties actually exceeded the 40 decibel limit in the current ordinance.

Mayor Tom Starnes said the issue belongs in the courts, not in council.

Council candidate William Yerrick invited Berardino to air his complaint at the April meeting of the City/University Joint Commission on Public Affairs. Yerrick is a member of the commission.

City Engineer Jim Hurt reported to council that the tree limb and brush cleanup in the wake of the March ice storms was "a little better than halfway through." He said the effort has cost the city more than $215,000 so far.