DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709260383

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 08   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: ON THE STREET 

SOURCE: Bill Reed 

                                            LENGTH:   63 lines

YEARS CHANGE BEACH, BUT NOT POLS, PROBLEMS

A bit of Virginia Beach history surfaces once a month at Brewer's East Inn, a restaurant adjacent to the Municipal Center, better known at one time as Princess Anne Court House.

There, seated at a table, you'll find four surviving members of the first elected 11-member City Council, munching on sandwiches and salads, poking at plates of meatloaf and mashed potatoes and sipping iced tea.

Conversations tend to vary in focus, says Dewey Simmons, 73, an early member of the council, circa 1964, but inevitably they swing back to ``things taking place in the city.''

Joining Simmons, now a marriage commissioner, at the regular luncheon get-together are Murray Malbon, former owner of a Virginia Beach auto dealership; Robert B. Cromwell Jr., now a Circuit Court judge, and Earl Tebault, a retired Blackwater Borough farmer.

Together, at one time, the four had a large say in what went on in the city and what didn't. Now, after nearly three decades out of the political spotlight, they gather to discuss how far the city has come since the merger in 1963 of the seaside resort of Virginia Beach and neighbor Princess Anne County. Then tourism and agriculture were the two main economic props of the community.

Or, they might note, how little progress actually has taken place in 34 years - in certain areas.

``They have the same problems we had,'' Simmons notes of the present council. ``Most of it just comes from growing pains.''

When the four men sat around the council table in the mid-'60s, the biggest challenge facing them was how to manage growth. And a close second was how to provide services - police and fire protection, trash collection and water and sewer connections - to a population of 111,400 people spread out over a 310-square-mile area.

Water was a major worry to city officials then, just as it is today, although the recent completion of the Lake Gaston pipeline has gone a long way toward easing their anxieties.

There remains, however, the fear lurking in the minds of local politicians and bureaucrats that the State of North Carolina somehow may find a way to put a cork in the pipeline and stop the flow of water to the city forever.

The apprehension is not without precedent. In 1961 officials in Norfolk - which has been the Beach's sole water supplier all along - threatened to cut off water service as a way of stopping the coming merger of the Oceanfront town and the sprawling county.

Since those days, local historian Stephen S. Mansfield, author of ``Princess Anne County and Virginia Beach - A Pictorial History,'' points out, the population of the Beach has more than quadrupled. The latest estimate is that Virginia Beach now is home to 430,485 souls and counting.

As the population has grown, politicians are still trying to figure out how to manage growth. The size of local government operations has quadrupled to keep up with the population and the municipal budget this year shot past the $1 billion mark.

Simmons is philosophical about the changes he has seen in 34 years.

``The old saying that government has gotten too big isn't true,'' he said. ``You've got more people to govern today.''

As for the leaders who now control the destiny of the Beach, Simmons observes: ``You still have politicians who are just politicians and you have politicians who really try to help the people they represent.''

Just like the old days.

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