THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 3, 1997 TAG: 9702030063
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: - By staff writers Robert Little and David M. Poole
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 76 lines
Lawmakers get their inspiration from strange places sometimes.
Del. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, got some of his sitting backward in the middle of the highway watching traffic pile up for miles.
It happened last year while he was driving to Richmond for a General Assembly meeting. A driver cut him off, smacked into his car, spun it around 180 degrees and left Wagner staring down the entire I-44 rush-hour commute.
He sat there almost an hour he said, completely blocking the highway.
``And every few minutes - whooooosh - a car would go by in the HOV lane,'' Wagner recalled this week.
``I thought, `We're going to do something about this. This ain't right.' ''
Wagner did something about it. He offered a bill to the General Assembly this year that would allow the HOV lanes to be opened to all traffic when accidents closed the main highways.
Not only would it prevent a lot of hectic commutes, it might save the government some money, he figured. That Hampton Roads traffic jam probably kept thousands of Defense Department workers from their jobs.
Wagner's bill passed the House unanimously Friday. It will be considered by the Senate this month. In regionalism battles, it's an eye for an eye
A bill to rename Norfolk International Airport died last week, but not before generating a parochial dust-up between Norfolk and Virginia Beach lawmakers.
Del. Leo Wardrup, R-Virginia Beach, told the House committee that his airport bill was a sincere effort to promote a sense of regionalism.
But senior Norfolk Democrats on the committee took offense.
Norfolk Del. George H. Heilig Jr. offered amendments that would require other localities in the Hampton Roads Planning District to repay Norfolk for the money it has invested in the airport.
Heilig also suggested that Virginia Beach reciprocate by renaming the GTE Virginia Beach Amphitheater as the ``Hampton Roads Amphitheater'' and the Virginia Beach Oceanfront as the ``Hampton Roads Oceanfront.''
``If it's an effort to further regionalism, Virginia Beach shouldn't have any problem renaming these things,'' Heilig later said.
After Wardrup objected to the amendments, the Rules Committee killed the bill.
``They had a little fun at my expense,'' Wardrup said. Republicans' solution for tired rivals? Share
At noon on Thursday, Portsmouth Democrat Kenneth Melvin arrived exhausted at the House of Delegates.
``I got here at 6.30 a.m.,'' he complained to the floor.
``I had two full committee meetings and two subcommittee meetings, and in one meeting someone asked if it was night or day, he'd been up so long.''
The General Assembly should extend its session or else limit the number of bills each legislator is allowed to introduce, Melvin concluded.
Republicans, who have been complaining all session that House Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr. has stacked committees with Democrats in order to frustrate Republican legislation, were not sympathetic.
``I feel his pain,'' Salem Republican H. Morgan Griffith said of Melvin.
``But I found myself with no committee meetings after breakfast this morning. It might make it a little easier for those who have four committee assignments if they shared.'' ILLUSTRATION: Del. Frank Wagner
Del. Leo Wardrup
Del. George H. Heilig Jr.
Del. Kenneth Melvin
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY