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

DATE: TUESDAY, January 24, 1995                   TAG: 9501240094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`POOREST OF POOR' MAY STAY UNPLUMBED UNDER ALLEN

The children are often sick from unsanitary conditions and sometimes don't want to go to school because their clothes are dirty.

The family is typical of the estimated 10,000 low-income Virginia households that would remain without running water and indoor bathrooms under Gov. George Allen's proposed budget cuts, says Mary Terry, executive director of the nonprofit Virginia Water Project Inc.

``Water and waste-water facilities are a basic need. You can't do a whole lot without it,'' she said Monday.

These families, whom Terry called ``the poorest of the poor,'' rely on her organization for help. And the water project relies on the state government for help, in the form of cash.

Allen is proposing to cut the group's funding by half - harder than many other social service agencies would be hit by the budget ax. The decrease amounts to $397,275 for the 1995-96 fiscal year.

INSERT AGENCY COMMENT HERE, IF WE REACH THEM TONIGHT

Without that money, Terry said she would have to pare down her 23-person staff and turn down 9,939 families in need of water and sewer facilities. They include:

n small Bonsack community that needs a water and sewer system.

A dozen homes on Plantation Road that need a sewer system.

60 homes in the Glen Wilton section of Botetourt County that are discharging raw sewage into a river.

47 homes in Giles County that have no water.

The state funding, which accounts for about 14 percent of the water project's total budget, helps coax money from federal and private sources, Terry said. With a little coaxing on her part, which she politely calls ``educating'' as opposed to lobbying, a number of legislators are trying to restore the money to the Roanoke-based organization.

``You ask and you try to get what you can, and that beats the devil out of nothing,'' said Del. Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke, who is sponsoring a budget amendment. His proposal has 28 co-sponsors, including six Republicans and an independent.

Terry said Charles Colgan, D-Manassas, and William Wampler Jr., R-Bristol, are co-sponsoring a similar amendment in the Senate.

``Speaking from a rural perspective, it has the ability to make a difference in putting together a lot of other projects,'' Wampler said of the group, which has helped a number of his constituents.

When people get indoor plumbing, Terry said, they often take a renewed interest in sprucing up their homes, painting, picking up litter and so on. Property values often rise after completion of a project.

Seventy-two percent of the state's contribution to the organization goes directly to communities for engineering studies, buying water and sewer pipes and hooking people up to these services, Terry said.

In its 25 years, the group has helped provide indoor plumbing to 37,966 low-income families, she said. There are still 40,000 households without this basic need, and they will be the hardest to serve because they are isolated, far from any community-owned facilities.

Virginia ranks fifth among states in the percentage of its population without water and sewer, she said. Last year, the group asked for $1.2 million, but got about $830,000. Still, that was more than the $564,569 from the year before, and the group was making progress.

If the state continues its solid support of the program, Terry said that, by the year 2000, her group's original mission would be reality - ``that all families have that tap to turn on.''