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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 18, 1995                   TAG: 9505180024
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

MAYOR TAKES AX TO BUDGET

"I do have some concerns about where the town's going financially," Mayor Andy Graham said at the conclusion of a public hearing on the budget Tuesday night. "We're reaching the point which is unbearable to many of our citizens."

Although the town has not increased its real estate or personal property taxes for several years, its sewer and water rates have gone up steadily. If the council approves a proposed 10 percent sewer rate increase, the rates will have gone up 23 percent in two years.

Water rates have gone up gradually as part of a consultant's recommendation for making the water fund self-sufficient. The final increase next year was to be 5 percent, but the town administration is recommending 7.5 percent because of increases in electrical and chemicals costs at the filtration plant.

Graham recommended specific cuts totaling more than $334,000 and canceling the sewer rate increase altogether. He asked that the Finance Committee hold additional budget sessions to consider his recommendations.

The committee, on which Graham and the entire council sit, had already gone over the budget before Tuesday's public hearing. Several had expressed concerns over the proposed rate increases.

To the council's obvious surprise, no one at the hearing opposed them at first. Then Councilman John Johnston said he thought Pulaski's water rates would be comparable with neighboring communities, but the sewer rates would be out of line.

That prompted one citizen, Bill Breedlove, to argue that the two rates combined amount to "the highest in the area ... We need to back those rates up, if anything."

"At home, we don't have any way of raising ours," Polly Mitchell said of the budget. "We just have to live within it."

Graham called for cutting $100,000 from the Police Department budget by canceling two new police officers and combining responsibilities for crime analysis, a crime prevention specialist and juvenile intervention specialist under a single officer. He also would cancel $25,265 in grant funds to the department.

The mayor wants to eliminate $53,500 in town contributions to local civic and cultural groups, including $8,000 to the New River Valley Rescue Squad. He had just proclaimed May 21-27 as Virginia Volunteer Rescue Squad Week in Pulaski and praised the efforts of the squad volunteers.

He also suggested cutting the entire $20,000 contingency fund, $1,000 of the $5,000 for training and meetings for the town manager and $14,000 from parks and recreation.

Among capital expenditures, Graham would cut two $21,500 vehicles for Police and Public Works Departments, a $22,000 Fire Department vehicle, $7,500 for street lights on U.S. 11, and $28,207 for a police computer system which he said could be postponed until 1999.

He recommended eliminating the sewer rate increase and instead transferring money from the general fund for needed sewer system improvements. He recommended adding $20,000 for "seed money in developing the vision" for the town's renovated Train Station building and the Ratcliffe Memorial Museum in it.

"Although this budget is excellent and requests are worthy, we must be fiscally responsible in order to keep taxes and utility services reasonable," he said.