DATE: Wednesday, July 9, 1997               TAG: 9707090008

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  119 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

His voice in the wilderness stirred the state to act

``The state is like a great and noble steed, but because of its very size, is tardy in motion. God has appointed me to be the gadfly to stir it into action.'' So said Socrates.

Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Henry E. Howell Jr. never claimed that God talked to him, but he tried to do the good that God expects of us all. And he did stir the government into eventual action.

Name the issues, the laws which we take for granted today, and you find that most were once causes Henry called for as a lonely voice in the political wilderness.

Henry pleaded the case for worker and civil rights, consumer protection, increased funds for education, etc., long before anyone else.

His long and hard labor in the political vineyards eventually came to benefit the mass of Virginians.

I knew Henry long. I knew him well. Henry Howell really did live up to his campaign slogan: ``Keep The Big Boys Honest.''

Now that he has left his mortal coil, it is right and proper to quote Hamlet, ``He was a man, take him for his all in all, (we) shall not look upon his like again.''

W. Gordon Dillon

Norfolk, July 8, 1997

WASTEWATER

Smithfield sewage to HRSD (EQ) a cleaner Pagan River

On June 25 occurred what amounts to nothing less than a triumph for ``regionalism'' in metropolitan Hampton Roads - all Smithfield wastewater was scheduled for treatment by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District at its state-of-the-art Nansemond sewage plant. HRSD was ready to comply with an agreement signed seven years earlier by the state, Smithfield Foods and HRSD!

HRSD pledged to spend $80 million to construct a 17-miles-long sewage transmission line from Smithfield to Suffolk, and to upgrade its Nansemond plant.

Smithfield Foods agreed to link with HRSD as soon as work had been completed and to pay toward improvements and modern services provided.

Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality brokered a solution to Pagan River pollution. HRSD engineers circled June 25, and Smithfield Foods engineers directed wastewater to HRSD on that very day! Regionalism triumped!

Neither the town of Smithfield nor rural Isle of Wight County could provide essential resources to resolve Pagan River pollution. Hampton Roads Sanitation District was able and willing to extend its regional network westward to the Pagan River.

With Smithfield Foods, Isle of Wight County and the town of Smithfield pledged to support HRSD, our metropolitan wastewater treatment agency shouldered responsibility.

Some ask why it took so long to work out a solution to Pagan River pollution. What the question overlooks is a necessity for cities, counties, towns and private interests to work in concert for effective regionalism to function.

HRSD operates only where it is authorized to do so locally. HRSD is dependent upon fees for its services. HRSD serves 14 municipal jurisdictions and 1.5 million residents of metroplitan Hampton Roads. Weaving Smithfield into its regional network proved to be an ardous assignment, but both HRSD and regionalism prevailed.

J. Brewer Moore

Commissioner

Hampton Roads Sanitation District

Portsmouth, June 29, 1997

AMPHITHEATER

Out with surcharge

for concert tickets

Regarding John Cochran's June 30 letter, I, too, went to the Virginia Beach Amphitheater box office to purchase concert tickets. Because I live just a few blocks away, I thought it a waste of my time to go to the mall. I, too, was surprised to have to pay a $5 surcharge this year!

The two women in the box office explained to me that the $2 fee was for parking and the $3 fee was new this year, since the amphitheater box office is now a Ticketron and open five days a week. I was told that last year the box office opened only one day a week.

Why is it that when I purchase tickets at Norfolk Scope, I do not pay a surcharge? Why is it that when I purchase tickets at Chrysler Hall, I do not pay a surcharge?

Virginia Beach is ripping off its customers when they purchase tickets at the amphitheater! Does Mayor Meyera Oberndorf realize this is going on? As John Cochran stated, ``Has City Council stuck it to us again?'' What gives?

Colleen Bromley

Virginia Beach, July 1, 1997

VIRGINIA BEACH

An audience under

the influence

I recently attended the ZZ Top concert at the GTE Amphitheater. The performers were great, but the audience left something to be desired.

During the concert, a girl behind me was standing up holding her beer in her hand while dancing. Next thing I knew, my whole left side was covered in beer. Three rows from the front, a man was drinking beer. He refused to sit down so the rest of us could see. A man two rows behind him asked him to sit down. The man refused and a brawl almost erupted. The same man eventually ripped his shirt off and threw it on stage.

Why do the people running the amphitheater allow drunks to enter? Why must they sell alcohol on the premises? Is this the only way some people can enjoy a concert? Who drives these people home afterward? Not all concertgoers are like this, but it takes only a few to spoil it for the rest.

Susan C. Starnes

Virginia Beach, July 3, 1997

ABORTION

Questioning Parenthood

Why is it that a physician cannot remove a splinter from my minor daughter's finger without my consent, but Planned Parenthood believes he should be able to perform an abortion on her without my consent?

Anne Carey

Virginia Beach, July 3, 1997

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