DATE: Saturday, September 27, 1997          TAG: 9709270439

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

STATE OFFICIALS SEE COOPERATION HERE, REPAY IT WITH CASH REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP WINS $2.2 MILLION TO DIVIDE AMONG DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS.

Long known for its bickering and backbiting, Hampton Roads is now $2.2 million richer because the state considers it a model for regional cooperation.

Gov. George F. Allen on Friday awarded nearly $6 million to the Hampton Roads Partnership and six other regional organizations statewide. The money was set aside during the last General Assembly session as an incentive for communities to act regionally to boost their economies.

The partnership, a group of local business, military, education, political and community leaders, plans to divide its share of the state money among a number of projects, including:

The Hampton Roads Technology Council, which the group established to provide planning and marketing support for the technology industry.

The Metropolitan Area Projects Strategies program, which is charged with developing a regional consensus behind a series of economic development projects.

The Intermodal Partnership Project, created to support the Port of Hampton Roads.

The Military Partnering Center, aimed at helping the military make productive the assets it decides to privatize.

And a work-force training program for technology industries, in conjunction with Old Dominion University.

The partnership also will award about $1.7 million to applicants with proposals to improve the region's economic health by training workers and attracting high-paying jobs, said Barry E. DuVal, president and CEO.

The partnership and the other six recipients are expected to get more money every year for the next five years, as long as the group can show that its work is having an impact, said Bill Shelton, deputy director of the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which oversees the state incentive program.

All 16 Hampton Roads municipalities agreed to apply jointly for the money and let the partnership decide how it should be spent.

Area leaders said Friday that the award is a sign that cities are looking beyond their immediate self-interests.

``We beat each other up so much, but the truth is, we led the entire state in this effort,'' Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said. ``We were repeatedly referred to at the state level as the folks who really seemed to be thinking cooperatively.''

Regional thinking is crucial both locally and across the state, Fraim and others said, because economic forces don't recognize city boundaries.

Hampton Mayor James Eason said it was the realization that low salaries and slow job growth in central cities diminish the economic vitality of surrounding suburbs that led to the passage of the Regional Competitiveness Act.

The Urban Partnership, a statewide organization that Eason co-chairs, lobbied for the creation of the incentive program to counteract Virginia's government structure, which discourages cooperation among communities.

``I'm not sure that people have really stopped and reflected on how important (Friday's award) is and how much had to happen to get to this point,'' he said. ``I think that it is probably one of the big success stories that have occurred in a long, long time.''

Seventeen of the 19 regions in the state applied for the funding. Those that did not make the first cut, including Richmond and Roanoke, can apply again in December for a piece of whatever money the General Assembly makes available next year, Shelton said.

The pot is divided among the qualifying regions based on population, so Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia will share the majority of the money awarded Friday. Northern Virginia received nearly $2.4 million.

Also awarded money were: the Petersburg area, the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula area, the Harrisonburg-Lexington-Staunton area, the Lynchburg area and the Brunswick-Mecklenburg-Halifax area. KEYWORDS: REGIONALISM

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