THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 27, 1995 TAG: 9512270246
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Three Chesapeake constants are salty water, political turmoil and growth.
This year the water for half the city was as salty as ever, and the political turmoil could have provided the plot for a daytime soap.
But residential construction, which peaked in 1994, has waned. For the first two-thirds of 1995, residential construction totaled $105.3 million. Most cities Chesapeake's size (181,000) would gasp at growth so rapid, but the 1995 total represented a 30 percent drop from the same period the year before.
There are indications that residential growth is headed west from Chesapeake, Virginia's fastest-growing city in recent years, to Suffolk, where there are larger, cheaper lots zoned residential - the kind developers crave. Many Chesapeake residents are happy to watch another city grow, while their city catches up with past growth.
More schools are planned and sorely needed - with 8,000 of the district's 35,000 students in portable classrooms.
City Council approved a final route for Route 168, also known as Battlefield Boulevard, which carries three times the traffic for which it was designed. Funding is still required and needs to be found pronto.
In November citizens took a significant step toward improving their lives when they approved a $72.5 million bond referendum to upgrade the city's water system to meet a July 1, 1998, federal deadline for better drinking water. Actually, a water plant would have been built without the bonds, but by approving them, voters saved nearly $6 million. No one will miss the salty water after the new plant goes on line in 2 1/2 years.
The general political turmoil turned bizarre last spring after a Chesapeake woman who had shot her husband twice, in 1986 and again in 1990, asked Vice Mayor Arthur Dwyer to help the husband, a former policeman, recover his health insurance and be retired with honor. The woman claimed Dwyer pressured her to have sex with him in exchange for his helping her husband, but both Dwyer and the woman said they never had sex. Dwyer got the husband's health insurance restored but was unable to have him retired with honor.
After it became known that the woman had embarrassing tapes of conversations with Dwyer, he resigned.
In October, without warning, City Council fired James W. Rein. He'd been city manager eight years and a city employee almost 25. After Rein opposed a $1-a-month water rebate that Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance had promised to deliver, Nance called for Rein's dismissal.
Council voted 7-2 to fire Rein, then 5-4 against the rebate that Rein opposed. Given that the city must pay for the water plant to solve the salty water problem, the rebate made little sense.
Many residents were outraged at the treatment Rein received, though there is ample precedent for shabby treatment of Chesapeake city managers.
In theory, the council is nonpartisan. In reality, it has five Republicans, three Democrats and one independent. Few predict lovefests on the council next year.
On the bright side, better-tasting water is on the way. Classes should become less crowded, with fewer students in portable classrooms. by CNB