DATE: Wednesday, May 7, 1997                TAG: 9705070447

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   91 lines

GOT A FUSS FOR CITY HALL? TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT TONIGHT'S IS THE ONLY MEETING SCHEDULED TO GIVE RESIDENTS A SAY ON NORFOLK'S BUDGET.

In heavy rains or high tides, the intersection in Tidewater Gardens often resembles a river, residents say.

The smelly flood waters scatter trash on sidewalks and in yards, sometimes back up toilets and create a hazardous journey to school for dozens of children who live in the public housing neighborhood near downtown.

``It's hard to get past without getting your clothes wet,'' said Nikita Sanderlin, 10, a fourth-grader at nearby Tidewater Park Elementary School. ``Sometimes when it floods, it comes up almost to my steps.''

For residents of this neighborhood, these floods at Charlotte and Walke streets are the reality behind the debate over dollars in Norfolk's proposed 1997-98 budget.

The city's capital improvement plan contains $350,000 to elevate the low-lying intersection and to install new storm drains, which city officials believe will solve the persistent flooding problem.

Some Tidewater Garden residents who have never attended a City Council meeting say they hope to attend tonight's public hearing on the budget to convince the council to approve their project.

``We're really ready for some action now,'' said Ursula Banks, president of the Tidewater Gardens resident management organization. ``It should have been done a long time ago. It's just bad.''

The 7 p.m. hearing at Chrysler Hall is the only meeting scheduled to allow residents to tell council how their tax dollars should be spent next year.

City Manager James B. Oliver Jr.'s proposed $509.7 million budget does not increase the tax rate for real estate or personal property. The rate would remain at $1.40 per hundred dollars of assessed value, which is the highest rate in the region.

But three user fees would rise.

Norfolk residents would pay 54 cents more a month for Emergency 911 phone service, which would generate about $800,000 for the city to upgrade the service. Citizens also would pay more to flush their toilets - the typical residential sewage bill would increase by about 30 cents a month.

Finally, people who lease long-term parking spaces downtown, which includes a lot of residents from surrounding Hampton Roads cities, would pay $8 more a month.

Like the long-suffering residents of Tidewater Gardens, many citizens say they will be seeking money tonight from council for needs that have gone unmet for too long.

For example, Eloise LaBeau, president of the Estabrook Civic League, said she and many of her neighbors probably won't oppose the increase in wastewater rates if it results in the replacement of the community's aging sewer lines. The lines are more than 50 years old, city officials say.

``I hate to pay more; I think it's terrible the prices we're paying now, but we need it done so badly,'' said LaBeau, who added that city officials had pledged in 1993 that work would begin in 1994. It didn't.

City officials said Estabrook is among about 20 neighborhoods that have been approved for sewer line replacements, but there's not enough money to do the work. The proposed increase - which would raise residential rates from $1.34 to $1.38 per 100 cubic feet of wastewater used - would generate about $360,000.

That's enough money to leverage about $4 million in bonds that the city could issue to finance the projects, said Louis Guy Jr., director of the city's Utilities Department.

``To the extent that we can stay ahead of the curve and fix things before they break, the cost and the inconvenience to a neighborhood are going to be a lot smaller,'' Guy said.

The city's library system is another topic sure to surface at tonight's hearing. The library's board of trustees has asked for an increase of $1 million, but the city manager proposes only about $250,000 - plus another $160,000 to buy a high-tech bookmobile with Internet access.

Trustees and residents say more money is needed for additional books and more current resource materials and to provide users with greater access to computer technology, such as CD-ROM titles, and to more audio-visual materials.

``The library has been underfunded and underfunded and underfunded,'' said Steve Tonelson, an Old Dominion University professor who was returning books Monday evening to the Larchmont branch. ``Libraries give people an avenue to grow that they might not otherwise have. There's all sorts of technology, and that costs money.''

Mayor Paul D. Fraim said during a council meeting Tuesday that the council intends to try to find more money than is included in Oliver's budget proposal for libraries.

``Citizens are telling us we're not spending enough, and our intuition tells us that we're not spending enough,'' Fraim said. ILLUSTRATION: PUBLIC HEARING

Norfolk residents have a chance at a public hearing tonight to

tell the City Council where to spend tax dollars. The hearing, at 7

p.m. in Chrysler Hall, is being held on the city's proposed

1997-1998 fiscal year budget. KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCIL

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