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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 31, 1995                   TAG: 9505310062
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

HOLDING THE BUDGET LINE HURTS IN PULASKI

Tax-exempt organizations in Pulaski will likely get the same amount of money from Town Council next year as they did this year, members said at a Finance Committee meeting Tuesday.

That would mean the financially strapped Fine Arts Center, which had asked for $6,000 from the town, would get only $3,000.

And it would eliminate the first-time requests from Friends of the Pulaski Theatre for $25,000 to help restore the former movie building on Main Street, and $10,000 for a program to help black at-risk youths in the area.

Contributions requests jumped from this year's total of $19,510 to $53,000.

Other budget areas still to be settled include economic development, funds for several Police Department programs, and recreation.

Finance Committee Chairman W.H. "Rocky" Schrader said the budget process would be much easier if council would give the town administration a better idea of what it wanted included and excluded before a proposed budget is drawn up each year.

The Finance Committee had been scheduled to consider the budget further at Tuesday's breakfast meeting, but economic development matters took priority, and the unsettled budget matters remained that way.

The council members did discuss enforcement of the two-hour parking limit on Main Street.

Parking has been a problem on Main Street since the opening of new stores and shops in recent years. One of the budget considerations involving the Police Department is whether to increase the number of parking monitors checking to make sure vehicles do not remain parked in one spot beyond the two hours.

Councilwoman Alma Holston reported hearing from lots of motorists last Saturday, when she was working as a volunteer in the Fine Arts Center, angry over their tires being marked so monitors could tell how long they had remained parked.

She said parking was not as much of a problem downtown on Saturday mornings, and the town was angering people needlessly by ticketing them.

But other council members noted that one reason for enforcing the two-hour limit is because store employees park on the street all day, taking spaces that could otherwise be used by shoppers.

When space is not freed for potential customers, the store operators complain. When parking limits are enforced, the employees complain. "You can't win," Councilman Roy D'Ardenne said.

Councilwoman Bettye Steger reported a complaint from a citizen who got four parking tickets for exceeding the two-hour limit at a particular spot.

"Tell him not to park there," advised Councilman Eddie Hale.

by CNB