DATE: Wednesday, May 14, 1997               TAG: 9705140506

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   73 lines

GIVE NORFOLK LIBRARIES MORE, CITY STAFF IS TOLDPUBLIC OUTCRY CAUSES THE CITY COUNCIL TO ORDER BUDGETING OF ANOTHER $125,000.

The City Council on Tuesday told staffers to add another $125,000 for libraries in next fiscal year's budget, a reaction to public outcry for more funding.

That would provide $375,000 more for libraries - or nearly 10 percent more than they got this year. But it falls far short of the $1 million increase sought by the library system's board of trustees.

Mayor Paul D. Fraim called the additional funding ``substantial'' and said that it ``would be a demonstration to the public'' of the city's commitment to libraries.

Steve Story, chairman of the board of trustees, said later that the additional funds ``will help, and it moves us closer to where we want to be, but I still don't think we're adequately funded.''

The needs are many, Story said: updated books, more computer technology and audio-visual collection, materials for teen readers and staff training.

In its first extended discussion of the proposed fiscal 1998 budget, which begins July 1, the council made only minor changes to the plan offered by City Manager James B. Oliver Jr.

The most intense discussion focused on Oliver's proposed reduction of about $2.3 million in capital spending on neighborhood improvements, including the acquisition and demolition of blighted property.

Under Oliver's proposal, funding would drop from the current $6.5 million to about $4.2 million. In 1999 and beyond, he proposes to cut funding to $2 million.

``The neighborhoods are the bedrock of this city, and I don't know how we're going to get away with doing that,'' said Vice Mayor Herbert M. Collins Sr. ``We talk about how important neighborhoods are, and with this, I think we're saying one thing and doing another.''

Councilman W. Randy Wright also objected to the proposed cut, asking that additional funds be found.

``I just think we've come a long way,'' Wright said, ``and if we can find a way not to back away from this commitment, we ought to do that.''

However, the proposed reduction remained at the meeting's end.

Fraim said the ``tension'' in the debate was between education and neighborhoods.

``I kept trying to push education first,'' he said. Three school projects - a new Granby High School gym, a new Taylor Elementary School and a renovated Bay View Elementary - will get about $7.7 million of the estimated $23.5 million in the proposed 1998 general capital budget.

Councilman Paul R. Riddick raised the issue of delaying the Taylor project, which has proven controversial, saying the council might be ``overloading ourselves.''

There also appeared to be enough votes to pass three proposed fee increases: a 54-cent monthly increase in the emergency-911 telephone bill; an $8 monthly increase in long-term parking rates; and a 4-cent increase residents and most businesses would pay per 100 cubic feet of wastewater generated.

The city has phased in wastewater rate increases for the past three years, with the idea of having residential and commercial users pay based on use.

Under the proposed rate increase in 1998, the typical homeowner would pay about 30 cents more a month as a result, an increase of less than 3 percent.

Hardest hit would be large commercial users, some of whom would face a 33-cent increase per hundred cubic feet for at least a portion of wastewater used.

The money raised by the fee increase would help the city replace aging sewer lines in neighborhoods throughout the city, officials said. The city has a backlog of nearly two dozen projects that have been approved but lack the funding, officials said.

Besides library funding, the council on Tuesday also instructed Oliver to restore about $86,000 that had been cut from the Chrysler Museum - bringing it back to this year's funding, and $50,000 lopped from the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. The gardens, at $1 million, still will receive $40,000 less than the current year. KEYWORDS: NORFOLK LIBRARIES NORFOLK BUDGET

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