ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 2, 1996 TAG: 9604020076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
Roanoke Vice Mayor William White asked City Manager Bob Herbert on Monday for a report on why some Roanokers apparently have been waiting decades to get curbing on their streets.
White said he was disturbed to read in The Roanoke Times last week about an elderly Northwest Roanoke couple who have been asking for curbing without success since 1962. Geneva Johnson of 1115 22nd St. is 70 and relies on a walker. She has trouble navigating the uneven ground along her street to get into her husband's car to go to church.
White said he was bothered, too, by city engineer Charles Huffine's comment in the newspaper story that it is council - not the city administration - that decides which streets get fixed.
"In a matter as important as delivery of basic services to our citizens," White said in a letter to council Monday, "it appears that our staff is passing the buck."
While council does set policy, White said, it "acts on the recommendations of our City Manager."
Five other council members voted unanimously with White in asking for a report on the 379 requests for curbs, gutters and sidewalks in the city's files and to make sure residents know how decisions are made on street improvements. The seventh member of council, Mac McCadden, was not at the meeting.
Council instructed Herbert to immediately begin a complete review of the outstanding requests for curbing and guttering and to give members a summary of all requests as well as a funding schedule for when the projects might be built.
"Council would be interested in knowing if some of these requests go back several decades," Mayor David Bowers told Herbert.
Herbert was told to brief council on curbs and guttering within 90 days.
White asked that funding for curbs and sidewalks be referred to in the 1996-97 budget study "as a possible priority item" and that long-term financing be considered for 1997-98 capital improvements.
Marshall Curtis, of the 1200 block of Syracuse Avenue Northwest, contacted White recently to complain about the years he has been asking for curbing. Curtis couldn't say Monday how long it has been, but he said it had been many years. His wife, Dorothy, was the one who kept in touch with the city, he said, and she was not at home when a reporter called.
"I built our house in 19 and 56," he said, "and we still don't have anything."
Three blocks away, a resident said she helped prepare the first of three petitions for curbing in the 1500 block of Syracuse in 1957 - five years before Geneva and William Johnson began asking for it on 22nd Street.
Syracuse Avenue neighbors last sent the petition to the city about 10 years ago, the woman said. The block is tentatively scheduled to get curbing next year. The woman said she did not want to be identified by name because she fears people will think she's a troublemaker.
Anne and Ted Horvath of 919 Curtis Ave. N.W. say they've been asking the city for curbing for 46 years.
"First, they told us if you can get 75 percent of the people [signed up]. Well, we got that," Anne Horvath said. "Then they said if we paid half. Then they said they were only making repairs. Then they said they were only doing new developments. We have been fighting them ever since we moved here." That was in 1950.
The curbing issue also arose during a March 25 candidates' debate at Mill Mountain Theatre.
Carroll Swain, a Democrat running for a four-year council term, brandished the Times article as an example of how some residents are being ignored.
"The city's not responding to the needs of the citizens," Swain said afterward. "Look, here's the problem. ... Somebody should have been talking to those people and letting them know what's going on or why it's not going on, which is not happening as far as I can determine."
Staff writer Dan Casey contributed to this story. Who to call for city help
Need curbs, gutters or sidewalks? Want to know if you're on the city's list? Call the city engineer's office at 981-2731.
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