ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603080058
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F2 EDITION: METRO
HERE'S A development deserving more attention and encouragement: Regional cooperation - albeit in fits and starts and mostly out of view - is picking up steam. Consider:
In the Roanoke Valley, Roanoke city and Roanoke County officials are talking about money-saving ways to (a) cooperate in the delivery of services, (b) standardize regulatory procedures, and (c) exploit economies of scale. Agenda items include emergency communications and trash collection, permitting for developers, and health benefits for municipal workers.
Facilitating by Tom Brock, chairman formerly of Roanoke's Chamber of Commerce and now of the New Century Council, hasn't hurt the effort. But the city and county executives, Bob Herbert and Elmer Hodge, and their staffs deserve credit for a deepening commitment to work out the nitty-gritty of cost-effective cooperation.
Most items they're working on are modest and may take years to materialize. They're no substitute for consolidation. Even so, the progress is important, and it helps remove barriers to future gains. Elected officials in both jurisdictions should not only embrace the endeavor; they should push it forward.
In the region that encompasses both Roanoke and New River valleys, the New Century Council is struggling to sustain its mission. But it quietly keeps busy (it promises some announcements soon), and by its mere existence remains a leap forward in regional planning.
The citizen-based council, which last year identified 150 ideas for enhancing local prosperity and quality of life, has behind the scenes promoted creation of a business-assistance center at Radford University. It is encouraging the formation of groups that would promote, among other things, high-tech employment, more cooperation among colleges and universities, and benchmarks for gauging quality of life.
Were its funding outlook past this year clearer, its support from Virginia Tech and local governments firmer, and its planning and collaborations for converting vision into actions more concrete, the New Century Council's prospects might seem more certain. But its work is nonetheless ongoing and vital, and its vision still beckons the valleys to combine effort for regional benefits.
In Richmond this session, the Urban Partnership - an alliance of Virginia business leaders and 18 cities and counties - has had surprising success lobbying for legislation to create incentives for regional cooperation and to make it easier for municipalities to share tax revenues from joint economic-development projects.
As important as the incentives themselves is the hope that state lawmakers finally are beginning to discern the conflicts between Virginia's outmoded system of local government and two facts of modern economic life.
One fact: Challenges confronting localities tend to be, increasingly, neighborhood-based or regional in scope. That means most problems are either smaller or larger than the governments configured to address them.
Second fact: The global economy has become a competition for resources and wealth among regions. Because regions are economic entities, a locality's fate depends on the prospects of the region of which it is a part. And the prospects of a region as a whole will be cramped if one part of it is struggling.
All of which may help explain why regionalism's momentum, however halting, is as welcome as it is overdue.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB