Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 13, 1995 TAG: 9509130054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For nearly 25 years, TAP's home was an old flour mill on Shenandoah Avenue in Northwest Roanoke. In 1989, all but the mill's old office building - which was home to the first TAP Head Start program - was gutted by fire two days before Christmas.
Once renovated, the structure again will house Head Start, but with a four-classroom addition and parking lot.
Almost half of the estimated $900,000 project will be funded with a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. TAP is expected to receive the $400,000 grant once it assures HHS that it has secured enough funding to complete the project.
TAP President Ted Edlich said the agency likely will try to borrow the remaining $500,000.
Head Start is a federal enrichment program for preschool children from low-income families. For three decades, TAP has administered the program at child development centers and home-based sites throughout Southwest Virginia.
The program serves 3- and 4-year-olds, said Cleo Sims, TAP's Head Start director. Head Start has applied to serve infants and toddlers as well, she said.
The renovation project was announced at a meeting of TAP's board of directors - E. Cabell Brand's last as chairman. Brand officially stepped down Tuesday, 30 years after founding the Roanoke community action agency.
"I want to say how significant it is that we can announce today that we are going to perhaps get the money to rebuild 702 Shenandoah Avenue," Brand said. "That was TAP's first home."
Brand said there was nothing bittersweet about stepping down and passing the mantle to investment banker Edwin "Ted" Feinour.
"It's time," Brand said. "This was a free decision. I will be available to help. But I'm not going to stick my nose in unless I'm asked to.
"I'm proud of the programs that we have going in this tough political climate. We've done well. We have a lot more to do."
Feinour is vice president of an investment counseling company. He has served on the TAP board as treasurer and chairman of the board's finance committee. He has been credited with helping TAP develop a solid fiscal system.
"TAP has a difficult job," Feinour said. "There are a lot of other organizations and agencies that say 'We just can't possibly do that.' and 'We don't have the time to do it.' TAP has always tackled problems to help alleviate the real cause of the problem" of poverty.
Feinour said TAP needs to broaden its base and understanding, to encourage more people to buy into TAP's mission: "that it really is a way for people to become self-sufficient and help themselves."
by CNB