ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 5, 1996 TAG: 9603050049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
Total Action Against Poverty is returning to what was left of its original home.
The Roanoke community action agency broke ground Monday on a renovation and expansion project at the site of an old flour mill on Shenandoah Avenue in Northwest Roanoke.
For 25 years, the old mill served as TAP's home. It was gutted by fire in 1989, two days before Christmas.
The only thing spared in the fire was the mill's old office building, which had housed TAP's first Head Start program. TAP plans to renovate the building for a 10-classroom Head Start center and build an addition and a parking lot.
TAP has received a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the project. TAP has borrowed another $400,000 and received two foundation grants - $12,500 from the Morgan Seay Foundation and $1,500 from the Foundation of Roanoke Valley - for playground equipment.
The project is estimated to cost between $850,000 and $900,000.
"This is an excellent example of the kind of public/private partnership that TAP does so well," Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said before he pushed a shovel into the frozen ground at Monday's groundbreaking.
"It's exciting to have the opportunity to have a brand new Head Start center for young children who are in need of getting a boost as they start their young lives. They will have the kind of advantage, parity, that some of them don't get unless they have this kind of assistance."
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. Administrators have applied for a grant to serve infants and toddlers as well. The program serves 660 children in 13 centers and 11 home-based programs in Southwest Virginia.
Head Start needs the space that the renovated building will provide. The program's Vinton center was closed at the beginning of the school year for safety and health reasons, Sims said. The program's Jefferson Street center, next to the old First Baptist Church in Gainsboro, has been closed since the church fire last year.
As a result, Sims said, three centers have been holding double sessions - one in the morning and another in the afternoon.
The new center is expected to be finished Aug. 15 and ready to open by the start of the Head Start school year in September, Sims said.
Head Start programs nationwide are operating under a continuing funding resolution until Congress and President Clinton can come to budget terms. Clinton has proposed increased Head Start funding.
"If he gets his way, Head Start may pick up more money," Sims said. "But if we continue operating like we are, we will probably take about a 3.9 percent cut."
Should more funding become available, TAP Head Start will be positioned to serve more children with the new center, Sims said. ``God knows the children are there.''
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. Total Action Against Poverty's Headby CNBStart director, Cleo Sims (left), speaks Monday at the
ground-breaking for the agency's new home. Other participating
include Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke (second from right), and TAP
Executive Director Ted Elich (far right).