Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 26, 1994 TAG: 9404260124
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By MARA LEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Only the center's interim director, Diana Weigmann, and three secretaries will remain, said Elizabeth Crumbley, the public relations coordinator, who is among those who will have to leave at the end of June.
The center distributes federal and state money to university researchers for water quality projects. Next year, three new projects by University of Virginia and Virginia Tech professors will be funded. The research examines wetland and forest environments. Four projects on watersheds, wetlands and runoff in the soil will continue from last year. The center typically funds five to 10 projects.
Although Ernest Stout, associate provost for research said, "The kinds of research we can fund will be drastically affected," the public education functions will be hardest hit.
The center, open since 1964, published a newsletter with 13,000 subscribers, and gave programs about water conservation and water pollution. "They've not just been located in this part of the state," Crumbley said. "They're all over."
The three employees that dealt with the public were laid off. The director's assistant will also lose his job. He had worked for the center for 24 years.
Crumbley said they'd known this was coming since last week. "We weren't handed any big surprises today," she said.
The center received $363,700 from the state last year. This year it received $75,000.
Stout said, "The funding next year for the water center is inadequate to support the program. We're trying to feel our way through this thing."
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