ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 3, 1997 TAG: 9702030080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
Charlottesville knows how to bring home the bacon when it comes to federal funding, prompting other districts to call for more equitable distribution of highway and transit money.
Over the last four years, the Charlottesville area has managed to collect almost three times more federal transportation money than other parts of Virginia.
The Culpeper District, which includes Charlottesville and Albemarle County, received the equivalent of $22.57 per resident, compared with an average of $8.60 per resident elsewhere in the state.
Charlottesville has used the grant money to improve the road and entrance to Monticello, to restore Union Station and to build bike lanes, among other projects.
``The reason they got it was because they were all good projects,'' said Robert Cassada, programming and scheduling administrator at the Virginia Department of Transportation. The department evaluates applications for the federal funds.
The money, the result of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, comes from gasoline tax revenue.
Katherine Hanley, chairwoman of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, called the Charlottesville area's large allocation ``unfortunate and unfair.'' Her district, Northern Virginia, is the least-funded district in the state. It receives only $2.20 a person.
Hanley said she hopes federal funds will be distributed more fairly in the future. ``They don't have to be down to the penny,'' she said. ``Just some rough proportion to the population.''
Cassada said VDOT plots all the projects on a map to ensure a fair distribution of grants. The department has distributed more than $42 million to Virginia's districts over the last four years.
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