THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507070693
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Anyone who thinks ``The Gong Show'' is available only as an archive of earlier television days missed Wednesday night's live performance by the Suffolk City Council.
In one mindless vote, the council kissed off the desperate need for a reasonable policy on sewer extensions, promised sewerage without so much as a clue as to how it would be financed and opened the doors for residents of every corner of the city to march into City Hall and demand sewerage with the expectation of getting it - now.
Whatever dynamic was at work Wednesday night, it stunk. And the stench isn't likely to go away anytime soon.
In approving sewerage for Westhaven Lakes, a classy subdivision of about 110 households near downtown, the council ignored areas that health officials have identified as much needier, emptied a ``sinking fund'' for school construction and took about half of a fund that the city manager had hoped would grow to the point of helping raise Suffolk's bond rating to enable borrowing for more sewerage.
The majority ignored Mayor S. Chris Jones and council members Charles F. Brown and Marion ``Bea'' Rogers, who wanted to approve a ``bridge budget'' to keep ongoing projects moving along, make policy a topic of the regular capital improvements discussion in the fall and decide then if the Westhaven Lakes project was a priority.
Compromise was clearly out of the question. And that begs the key question: why?
Look, no one should have to endure toilets that don't flush, washing machines that won't empty and yards that are swamped by sewerage during soggy periods. Yet this is what the folks in Westhaven Lakes - along with many others in far less ritzy places - have endured for years, and they've begged the council for relief.
If saying so were all it took, I'd say every subdivision in Suffolk should be relieved of such foul inconveniences. But it doesn't, and that means the city needs a policy to guide fair, systematic decisions.
Just how fair is it to move on with the Westhaven Lakes project when there are neighborhoods without even running water or flushing toilets, no matter the weather?
Yes, it's inconvenient, but not a soul was forced to move into Westhaven Lakes. The residents chose to move there, knowing full well that the area was served by septic tanks; and experience tells us that septic systems fail.
Still, houses continue to rise there. Somewhere along the line, surely the householders decided that certain inconveniences are offset by certain benefits, yet the cry for a bailout gets louder.
And now, instead of a 50/50 payment plan as the neighborhood had once offered, the city will foot the whole bill. Anyone with the money is free to live anywhere he wants to, but it shouldn't be the city's priority to provide relief just because Camelot won't perk.
Paul C. Gillis, a black civic league leader, promised Wednesday night that representatives from his area would ``line up from here downstairs'' to request treatment equal to Westhaven Lakes'.
He should live up to it. Indeed, every civic organization should get into the act.
In preparation, they could just ask Councilmen Richard Harris, Thomas Underwood, Curtis Milteer and Samuel Carter the secret to getting sewerage without fretting the cost.
Wednesday night's vote was an affront to every needy person who's ever stood before the council and recited stories about pit privies and open drainage ditches.
It's time for citizens to sound the gong and let the council know they've had enough of this show. MEMO: Comment? Call 446-2494, or write to the editor.
KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK CITY COUNCIL by CNB