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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 1, 1994                   TAG: 9411010100
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ANOTHER CHANCE TO SPEAK

Southwest Virginians barely had a chance to digest the hundreds of governmental reform recommendations proposed by Gov. George Allen's strike force before a public hearing on them in Roanoke last month.

More than 150 people signed up to speak. Time ran out before many had their opportunity.

So the Council of Community Services - a Roanoke human services planning agency - is giving the community another chance to comment on the volumes of recommendations. The council is hosting a public meeting on strike force recommendations Thursday at its 22nd annual Public Policy Forum.

The meeting, to be held in the community room of the Salem Civic Center from 7 to 9:30 p.m., will be conducted in round-table fashion. It will cover recommendations from all segments of the report. The council has invited state legislators and members of the strike force to attend.

"We felt the community needed more time to go through the recommendations and really look at them closely to determine what the impact may be on our region," said Pamela Kestner-Chappelear, the council's associate executive director.

The 466 recommendations include:

Reducing the number of state Department of Health and Human Resources agencies from 14 to no more than six.

Eliminating $2 million in state funding for the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville.

Requiring renewal of license tags by mail - or imposing a $5 surcharge for those who insist on coming into the Department of Motor Vehicles office.

Reducing the list of regulated air toxins from 450 pollutants to the 189 regulated by the federal government.

Extending college classes to 51/2 days and promoting year-round classes that would graduate students in three years.

Eliminating the Virginia Council on Child Day Care.

Establishing an Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Resources. That office, in part, would conduct a review of Child Protective Services.

To register and order a copy of the strike force report or for more information on the Council of Community Services' public meeting, call (703) 982-2345 or (703) 985-0131.

by CNB