ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995                   TAG: 9508090048
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium


SEWER FOR BELVIEW STUDIED

Montgomery County has taken a first, tentative step in an attempt to extend sewer service to a stretch of Peppers Ferry Road around Belview Elementary School, in part to serve a trailer park that wants to expand.

Simultaneously, the county will study the possibility of sewer service to upper Merrimac Road, on the other side of Price Mountain, to determine if such a project would receive a grant based on residents' income levels. For now, it looks as if the Belview project would be more likely to qualify for such a grant.

Lower Merrimac Road - from near U.S. 460 north to Slate Branch - already is scheduled to receive sewer service in a $1.2 million construction project that is to begin next month. Last month, the county learned it had been approved for another $475,000 grant to pay for higher-than-expected construction costs.

All three projects are part of the county's effort to provide sewer service to low-income rural areas, financed primarily through grants and low-interest loans from the federal government.

If either of the upper Merrimac or Belview projects gets a green light eventually - the county still has to choose which is the top priority - it would mean residents there would not have to rely on old septic systems or, in a few cases, on outhouses.

The county Public Service Authority on Monday ordered two steps: a preliminary engineering study for the Belview project; and a door-to-door income survey of homes in the upper Merrimac Road area between the Blacksburg town limits on Hightop Road north to Oilwell Road.

The engineering study would give a cost estimate for developing the sewer-line link to Peppers Ferry Road, for the stretch between Massie's Mobile Home Park and the intersection with Prices Fork Road. In the spring, the county postponed consideration of a 40-space expansion of 61-space Massie's trailer park until the sewage situation is resolved. Massie's uses an old lagoon system that no longer meets beefed-up environmental regulations. This spring, an engineer for the trailer park estimated it would cost $200,000 to hook the park up with an existing sewer line at Belview School, though county officials are looking at applying for a $700,000 grant to connect the larger area around Belview.

The upper Merrimac Road income survey would show which area - Belview or upper Merrimac Road - has the greater percentage of low-income residents, and therefore would be more likely to qualify for a grant. A survey finished last month in Belview showed that 75 percent of the 134 families that would be served by a new line had low to moderate incomes. Past surveys have indicated approximately 60 percent of upper Merrimac residents had low to moderate incomes. The higher the percentage, the greater the chance for winning a community development block grant.



 by CNB