DATE: Tuesday, September 2, 1997            TAG: 9709020114

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN MURPHY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   74 lines

BEACH COUNCIL TO DECIDE IF PROPOSALS GO ON BALLOT

Facing a midnight deadline, the City Council must decide today whether to place questions on the November ballot asking voters to pay for renovations and repairs to the city's schools and libraries.

The decision will not be an easy one, council members say.

With mounting concerns about exceeding the city's debt limit, pressure to keep taxes low and a spring election for nine of 11 council members, the impact of today's vote will be felt well into the future by residents and council members alike.

For those reasons, the council is keeping its options open.

Today's agenda will give council members three choices on both the library and school modernization referendum proposals.

The council can:

Place the questions on the ballot in November.

Do nothing now.

Or, fashion alternative plans for funding the projects.

The final option was an eleventh-hour addition to the council agenda by city staff and council members.

Under an alternative plan for school modernization, council members say, Cooke Elementary, the oldest and most decrepit of the eight elementary schools in line for repairs, would be renovated beginning next summer. Money for the $10.5 million modernization would come from the operating budget and capital improvement project funds.

Repairs slated for the seven other elementary schools on the proposed referendum would be put to voters in November 1998. The new referendum also would include money to repair 16 additional elementary and middle schools. The new referendum would ask voters to pay a total of $150 million for the combined school modernizations.

Details of an alternative plan to renovate and expand the city's library system were still being worked on by city officials late Friday and were unavailable.

Though the alternative plans for both schools and libraries were final additions to the agenda, it does not mean they are the first choice, council members said.

``Nobody is committed to anything at this point,'' said Councilwoman Barbara M. Henley. ``What we wanted was to have possible alternatives.''

Henley, however, said she was not happy with the current referendums as proposed.

Councilman William W. Harrison Jr., who last week drafted the referendum questions for the vote today, said he could not predict which option the council would choose.

``I would like our decision to be unanimous,'' he said, adding that he was concerned that if the council votes against the school referendum this year it could drive a wedge between the council and School Board.

``I want the School Board and council to be together on this,'' he said.

Under the proposed school referendum, voters would be asked to pay $62.5 million to modernize eight elementary schools: Bayside, W.T. Cooke, Creeds, Kempsville Meadows, Louise Luxford, Shelton Park, Thalia and Woodstock.

If approved, the real estate tax rate would increase 3 cents.

The library referendum would boost taxes by 4.5 cents. The money would be used to finance $21 million in renovations and construction of public library facilities plus fund ongoing operating costs.

Combined, the projects would add 7.5 cents to the current real estate tax rate of $1.22 per $100 of assessed value. That would mean the owner of a $100,000 home would pay $75 more per year.

The projects also would push the city's debt well above Virginia Beach's self-imposed limit of $1,300 per capita. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Today's agenda will give the council three choices on both the

library and school modernization referendum proposals. The council

can: Place the questions on the ballot in November. Do nothing now.

Or, fashion alternative plans for funding the projects. The final

option was an eleventh-hour addition to the council agenda by city

staff and council members. KEYWORDS: REFERENDUM

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