DATE: Wednesday, July 16, 1997              TAG: 9707150055

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: PUBLIC LIFE

SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   95 lines

TARGETING MOSQUITOES EACH CITY DIFFERS IN ITS TECHNIQUES AND TAXES.

For Hampton Roads residents, the cost of mosquito control can seem an unnecessary financial bite or money happily spent on outdoor relief.

Every city's mosquito control system is different.

In Chesapeake, most citizens are assessed an additional 2 cents per $100 valuation on homes and property to fund the city's five autonomous mosquito control commissions. The commissions are in Washington, Western Branch, Deep Creek, Great Bridge and South Norfolk boroughs.

That equates to $20 for every $100,000 in real estate and 8 cents for every $100 in personal property - or enough for that property owner to buy about 10 cans of bug killer.

Suffolk funds its mosquito control in a similar manner, except the taxing district encompasses only the 2.2-square mile downtown corporate area. There, residents are assessed an additional 18 cents for a number of city services not provided to the rest of Suffolk, a little over a penny of that goes toward mosquito control.

Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Portsmouth have no special taxing districts to pay for mosquito control. Instead the money comes from the cities' general funds.

Last year, Chesapeake spent $2.4 million for mosquito control for all five commissions.

Kam Reporter, a Great Bridge resident and former mosquito control director in North Carolina, said the budgets need more oversight. He has suggested the city manager evaluate the entire commission system.

``When you don't have a controlling mechanism, the budget continues to mushroom and mushroom,'' said Reporter.

But other Chesapeake residents, such as Greenbrier area citizen Denise Waters, believe the commission system works just fine. Her house sits on a large wooded lot where mosquitoes are apt to breed.

``I'm very satisfied,'' Waters said. ``For the past four or five years, they have sprayed practically to our door.''

Chesapeake mosquito control officials defend their system, saying it fits the needs of a growing city. Western Branch Mosquito Control Superintendent Edward Speers said several years ago only South Norfolk and Western Branch had control commissions. But as the city grew, citizens went to City Hall requesting additional districts.

``Every year, we do a good service,'' Speers said, ``and if we have money left over, we use it for emergencies.''

Rapid growth is also causing Suffolk officials to consider expanding mosquito control to outlying communities there.

City officials are meeting with residents in neighborhoods around downtown and near Nansemond Parkway to tell them how a special taxing district would work, said Cynthia Rohlf, assistant to the city manager.

Property owners in the affected areas now pay $1.03 per $100 of real estate value. Suffolk officials say it would take an average one or two pennies extra on the tax rate to get the spraying service.

Bobby Howell, Suffolk's mosquito control director, said most of his complaints come from citizens who are not in areas being sprayed.

``They always want to know why they aren't getting the service,'' said Howell. He said he had no count on the complaints but added that some come in every day.

In Virginia Beach, city officials in 1988 consolidated the mosquito control program there from three independent commissions to one agency under the control of the Public Works Department. Now, officials say, they try to concentrate on educating citizens about mosquito control and getting to the source of the problem, such as cleaning ditches of stagnant water, rather than spraying.

Dreda McCreary, mosquito control biologist for the Beach, said citizens can do more to correct problems around their homes.

``People have to be aware of what's in their yard,'' McCreary said. ``They need to watch out for containers and old tires, plastic covers and tarps. We like to look at the nighttime spraying as a last-ditch effort.''

Portsmouth and Norfolk take a similar preventive approach.

In Norfolk, they have 15 environmental health specialists, said Agnes M. Flemming, environmental health supervisor for Norfolk's department of health, division of vector control. During the spring and summer months, she said, the specialists go door to door, passing out pamphlets about mosquito prevention.

In Portsmouth, pesticides are sprayed primarily based on complaints, weather conditions and the numbers of mosquitoes, said Judith Duffy, assistant director for public works.

The city uses traps to determine where the bugs are heaviest, and also relies on citizen education to reduce mosquito breeding, said Duffy. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot

Jennifer Gregory, a lab aide in Virginia Beach, empties mosquitoes

from a light trap that the city uses to measure the bugs'

proliferation.

Graphic

KEN WRIGHT/The Virginian-Pilot

MOSQUITO CONTROL: CITY BY CITY

SOURCE: Information from each city

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]