ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 TAG: 9701140086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
THE PUBLIC IGNORED glitzy high-dollar proposals such as a Mill Mountain tram, family water park and Victory Stadium renovations.
If residents get their way, Roanoke will spend its future capital improvement money expanding elementary school classroom space, adding technology to schools, building greenways and bicycle lanes, and erecting gyms at Fishburn Park and Fairview elementary schools.
Those were the priorities listed by several dozen residents Monday night at Roanoke's first-ever public hearing on its five-year capital improvement program.
The public ignored glitzy high-dollar proposals such as a Mill Mountain tram, family water park and a $15 million renovation of aging Victory Stadium.
Instead, schools; parks; and nuts-and-bolts projects such as curbs, gutters, sidewalks and storm drains ought to be the items on which the city spends taxpayers' dollars between now and 2003, they said.
The city called the meeting because City Council wants the public's views on how to spend taxpayer money, City Manager Bob Herbert said.
The city has a laundry list of some $178 million in potential projects, but only $20 million to $30 million to spend, unless taxes are increased. The lion's share of available funding will not be available until 2001 at the earliest, when the city is scheduled to pay off loans that it borrowed years ago for other public projects.
About 70 residents showed up at the meeting in the Roanoke Civic Center's Exhibit Hall to put in their two cents. Another 50 or so people who work in city government also attended the meeting, either as facilitators or to suggest capital projects.
"These are large-scale, one-time, public improvement-type projects," Herbert said. The residents' suggestions will be forwarded to a city study team that will sort through them and make recommendations to City Council.
The people were divided into smaller groups, which devised priorities from a long list of potential projects. Group members could also add their own proposals. Then the groups compared notes.
By far, the top priority mentioned at the meeting was getting rid of classroom trailers, an item cited by every one of the smaller groups. About 30 of the modular classrooms stand on city elementary school grounds.
Other school projects that received a high number of votes included gyms at Fishburn Park and Fairview elementary schools, which have none now.
Parks - greenways in particular - also were high on the list.
"If we focus on improvements in the parks, then our children would have some place to go and be safe and happy," said Jeannette Manns, co-chairwoman of the Washington Park Neighborhood Alliance.
Some of the projects sparked debate.
For instance, a city long-range facilities study by a hired consultant lists a new $12 million police headquarters as the city's greatest office space need. At a minimum, the consultant has recommended, the Police Department needs $2 million to expand existing facilities.
"Our police facilities are antiquated and need to be updated," said Charlie Hancock, president of the Garden City Civic League.
But Bob Fetzer, a local builder and greenways proponent, panned the idea of a new $12 million police building.
"We don't need more police officers on Third Street," Fetzer said. "We need to get those police officers down to these neighborhoods, in small satellite offices."
And two new fire stations at a cost of $2.4 million got few votes from the crowd.
Some other projects, both high and low profile, received nary a mention as public priorities.
* None of the eight groups listed a tram or incline railroad to Mill Mountain as one of the city's top projects. Mayor David Bowers suggested the idea in his 1995 State of the City Address and renewed it again last summer.
* Except for a mention of $15 million in proposed renovations to Victory Stadium as the "lowest priority" of all projects, no group at the public hearing favored spending large amounts to fix up the aging sports venue.
* Although many people favored parks in general, no one listed a $2.2 million family water park in Southeast Roanoke as a priority. The proposed Fallon Park expansion, which would include flume slides, a "Lazy River" ride, speed slides, kiddie water playground, miniature golf, video arcade and batting cages, is listed as a potential project on the $178 million wish list.
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