DATE: Tuesday, July 22, 1997                TAG: 9707220248

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Briefs 

                                            LENGTH:  154 lines

HAMPTON ROADS [BRIEFS]

Housing officials to tour the city's public housing units

The body that oversees housing in this 430-square-mile city will load up in a van today and drive to each of Suffolk's public housing developments.

Some of Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners haven't toured the facilities in years. Others have taken in the sights as recently as last week. All of them, though, have one thing in common.

``I think we've all been getting calls from residents who say their problems are not being fixed,'' said Commissioner Mary Richardson. ``I went to Hoffler (Apartments) on Monday, and I was surprised at what I saw. There were no blinds on windows, and the trash was unbelievable.''

For months, residents from Suffolk's 466-public housing units have been attending the agency's meetings complaining about the maintenance of their homes. Two months ago, one tenant showed a video of her housing site. It included overgrown grass, overflowing trash and bare windows.

Richardson said the problems on the video still exist today.

Executive Director Clarissa E. McAdoo said she, too, has toured the housing sites and agrees that there are problems. She is working with maintenance on an action plan to solve them, she said. The agency is also without a maintenance supervisor. The last one resigned two weeks ago.

``When you look at other housing authorities, their maintenance resources are much deeper,'' McAdoo said. ``We have nine people on staff and 466 units. We are also in need of additional resources.''

Richardson said, after the tour, the board will discuss how it can help improve public housing.

The tour will start at 10 a.m. today. The commission will leave from the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, 530 East Pinner St. Chesapeake

City selects three new

fine arts commissioners

The Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission has selected three new arts commissioners: Catherine A. Klem, Herbert W. Pettway and Virgil Kocher, said city fine arts coordinator L. Randy Harrison.

Klem, a secretary and music teacher, has a bachelor's degree in music education. She has been involved in several musical groups, serving as a handbell director; a soloist for community organizations; and a member of a choral society, two local orchestras and a community band. Klem also has taught the flute.

Pettway, an agricultural extension agent, has a master's degree in education from Old Dominion University. He now is working toward a doctorate in education administration. He is the president of the Rotary Club of Great Bridge.

Kocher is a retired U.S. government employee who also served in the Air Force as a navigator. He attended Bethany College in Bethany, W.Va. He also has served as an adviser to the Spanish Air Force and is fluent in Spanish. In his second career, he worked as a field representative and public affairs specialist with the Social Security Administration. Kocher has had a lifelong interest in theater and set design. He is a board member of the Virginia Stage Co. as well a board member of the Generic Theater.

VIRGINIA BEACH

Multicultural fund-raiser

will pay for lung transplant

The Multicultural Alliance of Virginia, a nonprofit organization promoting the culture of various ethnic groups, will sponsor a Cultural Diversity Entertainment fund-raiser Thursday at the Central Library Theater from 7 to 10 p.m.

The event, which highlights ethnic dance performances by the Scottish Dance Theater of Virginia, Folkloric Ballet, British Isle Dancers, United Ilocano Youth Dance Troupe and explosive Flamenco dancing, will benefit Karen Tanghetti, a Virginia Beach resident who is afflicted with primary pulmonary hypertension.

PPH is an illness that is usually fatal within three years from diagnosis, according to Dr. Lewis J. Rubin, professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He will be performing the lung transplant for Tanghetti.

Donations of $10 each for event tickets will go toward Tangetti's medical expenses. Call 481-3654 or 481-7176.

REGIONAL

Young ambassadors

depart for Germany

Four teen-age South Hampton Roads YMCA members boarded a jet at Norfolk International Airport Monday afternoon, on their way to becoming student ambassadors to the German equivalent of the YMCA.

Accompanying them were three YMCA camp counselors who will attend a camp sponsored by the German CVJM group in Wildflecken, Germany, Norfolk's sister city.

This marks the first time the local YMCA has sent students abroad. CVJM officials will be in Norfolk this week to discuss future plans for international cooperation, said YMCA Human Resources Director Rhonda Caswell. Discussions will include future student exchanges and a project to assist the Russian YMCA in Chernobyl, Caswell said.

The students took with them items to trade with German campers, including marshmallows, baseball cards, 17th Street Surf Shop and Suffolk Peanut Fest T-shirts, and Portsmouth Invitational Tournament pins. They hope to bring back similar symbols of German culture. The students are Maura Kennedy, 13, and Elizabeth Barr, 15, of Virginia Beach; Delacy Stith, 14, of Portsmouth; and Aaron French, 14, of Suffolk.

The group will return July 30, after a week of hiking mountain trails, playing games, swimming, and exchanging cultural information.

Recycle old phone books

when new ones arrive

The new Bell Atlantic phone books are on their way in, the old ones are on their way out, and ecology-minded people are asking themselves the annual question of what to do with last year's directories.

Despite some confusion in the past, this year's procedure in all South Hampton Roads cities is simple: Put the books in a home recycling container or take them to any of the area's drop-off centers.

``It's that easy,'' said Felicia Blow of SPSA, the agency that handles recycling in all South Hampton Roads cities except Virginia Beach. ``And we accept old phone books all year round, not just when the new ones come out.''

Businesses with 50 or fewer phone books also may use the drop-off centers, said Blow. Those with more than 50 books to be recycled should call Tidewater Fibre at 543-5766 for more instructions.

The system is much the same in Virginia Beach.

``The people who have the new blue recycling cans can drop them in those,'' said Katherine Jackson, a city public relations specialist. ``Everyone else can put them in the same drop-off bins where they put their newspapers.''

Delivery of the 1997-98 South Hampton Roads Bell Atlantic phone books began July 15 and is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 8.

ALSO. . .

Chesapeake - The Social Services Division will hold a second welfare reform summit from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 5 at Oscar Smith High School. Organizers expect 900 welfare recipients to attend, said Susan VanHorn, with the Human Services department.

The summit will inform and motivate potential participants of VIEW, the Virginia Initiative for Employment, not Welfare - part of the federal welfare reform legislation, VanHorn said. The VIEW program begins Oct. 1, when recipients will need to begin shifting from welfare to work.

For more information, call 382-2290.

COMING UP

WEDNESDAY

Suffolk - At 5 p.m., WTKR-TV-3 will broadcast live from Constant's Wharf at North Main Street and Constance Road in Suffolk. The broadcast will feature interviews with residents and spotlight the community. Television anchors Jane Gardner and Ed Hughes and crew will also meet and greet residents at the Senior Center on Main Street at 12:30 p.m. The public is invited to watch the 5 p.m. news broadcast.

Portsmouth - The 44th annual Portsmouth Seafood Outing will be held from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the U.S. Coast Guard Support Center in West Norfolk. Bill Deal and Ammon Tharp will provide music for the outdoor party, which features a seafood buffet, business exhibits and a silent auction. Tickets are $20 for members in advance and $25 for nonmembers and at the gate. A block of 10 tickets costs $180. For information, call 664-2576. MEMO: Staff writers Katrice Franklin, Ida Kay Jordan, Mark Young, Jo-Ann

Clegg and Liz Szabo contributed to this report.

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