THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 3, 1995 TAG: 9503020159
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
After months of debate and several sessions that included public comment, the council approved itsbuilding budget by a slim margin Tuesday.
Council members James C. Hawks, James T. Martin and P. Ward Robinett opposed the budget proposal as well as the city borrowing $7.3 million to fund it.
The main sticking point over the budget seemed to be funds for the new I.C. Norcom high School. Councilman James C. Hawks opposed the budget because $3.9 million was included for construction of the school.
``We're not meeting the needs of the citizens by building this second new school,'' Hawks said. ``I don't intend to support it.''
Martin said he too had hoped to remove the school from the building budget ``to look for alternative funding.''
Robinett did not explain his dissent during the public meeting.
Months of debate had raged over whether to build a stadium at Wilson High School - something that hadn't been a consideration when City Manager V. Wayne Orton presented the budget to the council.
The suggestion to add the stadium stirred up a storm. First from protesters who didn't want the new stadium near their homes, and then from folks who didn't want money taken from their projects to fund a stadium that hadn't been considered recently.
In the hours before the council made its final decision the debate continued.
Nathan Downey, a student at Wilson High School speaking a second time before council, said that before the city spent money to construct a new stadium, it should invest in fixing problems inside the school. He especially complained about problems with the school's heating and air conditioning system.
``When it's hot and you have to listen to a lecture and take notes, it's hard. When it's cool it's hard to do that,'' Downey said. ``If you can afford a football stadium and you can't afford to fix things inside the school, I don't know . . . it seems like something's wrong.''
By taking the stadium out of its budget, the council didn't have to divert funds for a fire truck; from the Children's Museum or from road and drainage projects.
``It doesn't make sense that you defer funds that we've been asking for for over 30 years,'' said Carlton M. Carrington, of the Cavalier Manor Civic League, before the vote. The civic league wanted to ensure that funding to close ditches along Cavalier Boulevard, weren't used for building a new stadium.
The council went along with public sentiment, but two council members - Martin and Cameron C. Pitts - suggested that the Wilson stadium might be up for debate again next year.
``Perhaps we can revisit this item and find something that is acceptable,'' Martin said of the stadium. ``I don't like this `not in my neighborhood' response. And we have to get over this, because the city's just not that big.''
While several citizens didn't like the idea of diverting funds from other projects for a high school sports complex, there were plenty of residents in favor of new and improved little league fields for Portsmouth.
Several citizens objected to the council's idea of eliminating funding for a Cradock Little League Sports Complex because the city is negotiating a contract with the Navy to lease the fields at St. Juliens Creek Annex for at least 20 years. Several Little League supporters said they didn't trust that the Navy wouldn't back out of the contract a few years down the road and the Little League once again would be threatened.
Councilman Robinett suggested then that rather than remove the $500,000 sports complex from the plan, the funds be included in next year's budget - in case the Navy reneged on its offer.
Funds to improve fields for the John Tyler Little League were added to the budget after dozens of supporters complained about their condition. Improvements to those fields already have begun, Orton said Tuesday. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Dan Evans speaks against riverboat gambling at the public meeting
Tuesday night.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL by CNB