DATE: Monday, October 13, 1997              TAG: 9710130075

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Staff writers Liz Szabo and Ida Kay Jordan contributed to this
        report.

                                            LENGTH:  103 lines

HAMPTON ROADS

REGION

Candidates sit down

with citizens panel

to answer questions

If last week's debate between gubernatorial candidates Don Beyer and James Gilmore did more to confuse than inform, tune in this week.

Members of the Your Voice/ Your Vote citizens panel got a chance to sit down with Beyer and Gilmore, one on one, minus the mudslinging.

Each candidate got a half-hour alone with the citizens to answer questions and explain why he should get the governor's job.

Hampton Roads residents can see the interviews Tuesday from 8 to 9 p.m. on Local News on Cable. (Check local cable listings for channels.)

The discussions will be re-broadcast at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday on WHRO public television; at 8 p.m. Friday on LNC; and on Sunday p at 1 p.m. on LNC and 2 p.m. on WVEC-TV 13.

CHESAPEAKE

For graffiti arrest, Freed

wins Officer of the Quarter

The police officer who caught two graffiti artists Aug. 23 was named Officer of the Quarter for the second quarter of 1997, a police spokesman says.

Officer James R. Freed caught a man spray-painting the back of the Be-Lo food store on Centerville Turnpike and Mount Pleasant Road. Freed also arrested the man's companion in a nearby pick-up truck. He found 30 cans of spray paint in the truck.

Freed put in 70 hours of his own time while off-duty to solve that case, said police spokesman Dave Hughes.

NORFOLK

Meeting to explain state's

Prepaid Education Program

Norfolk residents can learn how to save money on college tuition and mandatory fees through the Virginia Prepaid Eduation Program by attending a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lake Taylor High School.

The program enables parents and others to prepay college tuition and mandatory fees at community colleges, four-year universities or a combination of the two. The program is open to children in the ninth grade or younger if the child or purchaser is a resident of Virginia.

A representative of the trust fund will provide information and answer questions from the audience.

The deadline for VPEP's 1997 enrollment is Dec. 15.

For more information, call 1-888-567-0540.

PORTSMOUTH

Friddell to open lecture

series at the Commodore

Guy Friddell, columnist for The Virginian-Pilot, will open the Second Tuesday Forum series at noon Tuesday at the Commodore Theater with a talk, ``Out of the Corner of Guy's Eye.''

Friddell, who talks about everything from politics to collards to his favorite dog, has worked for more than 50 years on four newspapers in New York and Virginia. He also has written eight books, five of them about Virginia - ``the Mona Lisa of states, beguiling, teasing us out of our mind,'' he wrote.

The Second Tuesday Forum is free and open to the public. The series is funded by the Portsmouth Museum and Fine Arts Commission, the Portsmouth General Hospital Foundation and the Portsmouth Public Library Foundation. Doors will open at the Commodore at 11:30 a.m., and complimentary beverages will be provided by the theater.

The Commodore Theater is at 421 High St.

For more information, call Portsmouth Librarian Sue Burton at 393-8501.

People may apply for help

with their winter fuel bills

Applications for participation in the Energy Assistance Program will be taken between Tuesday and Nov. 14 by the Portsmouth Department of Social Services.

Eligibility for fuel assistance is based on gross monthly income and the number of people living in a household. Applicants must furnish verification of income and resources.

A second part of the program provides crisis assistance, which includes help with paying a security deposit, a cutoff fee or, in cases where fuel assistance is not received, payment of a primary heat utility bill. The crisis assistance is available Nov. 3 through March 13 unless money runs out before then.

For details, call 398-3600.

COMING UP

TUESDAY

Portsmouth - A public hearing on the use of Community Development Block Grant money will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday in City Council Chambers at City Hall. The hearing will be part of a joint meeting of the council and members of the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority. The hearing will cover proposed changes or additions to existing plans, the 1998 Action Plan and the five-year Consolidated Plan (1998-2002). ILLUSTRATION: Beyer

Gilmore

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu