Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 27, 1990 TAG: 9004270208
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The regional planning agency voted Thursday to approve a $401,506 budget for the new fiscal year. That is 5 percent lower than the current year, because the federal and state governments will provide less financial aid.
Despite the budget reduction, Executive Director Wayne Strickland said the agency can retain its nine-member staff. But there will be decreases in 30 categories such as consultants, printing, postage and membership dues for professional organizations.
The nine localities that form the planning district will be asked to increase their funding from 25 to 30 cents per person to help make up part of the decrease in federal and state money. That 5-cent increase will generate an estimated $12,000.
Strickland said 30 cents per person is one of the lowest local funding rates for planning districts in urban areas in the state.
The planning district stretches from the Roanoke Valley to Alleghany County.
The budget provides a 5 percent cost-of-living pay raise for the agency's staff planners, but there is no money for merit raises.
The commission will have to use $20,000 from its reserve funds to balance the budget, continuing a practice it began several years ago.
Even though the commission's budget has increased by an average of only 1.4 percent a year since the mid-1980s, Strickland said the workload has doubled. Some staff planners have been working 50 to 60 hours a week without overtime pay, he said.
The staffing level has not increased in a decade, he said, despite the rapid increase in the workload.
On another matter, the commission voted to endorse the concept of a test "smart road" that would be part of the proposed highway link between Roanoke and Blacksburg/Virginia Tech.
The "smart road," being designed by Virginia Tech's Center for Transportation Research, would be equipped with fiber-optic sensors linked to a miniframe computer. Navigational computers would warn drivers when they are too close to the vehicle in front or veering off the road.
The commission voted to urge state highway officials to pursue the development of the concept and to seek funding for the road.
by CNB