CRAIG SUPERVISORS BACK BLOCK GRANT APPLICATION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993                   TAG: 9303040456
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE                                LENGTH: Medium
CRAIG SUPERVISORS BACK BLOCK GRANT APPLICATION
An application for a grant to improve water service to the Craig City area just outside New Castle has been endorsed by the Craig County Board of Supervisors.
But the application for a $700,000 Community Development Block Grant does not have universal approval.
Bruce Lee, who has held various county government offices over the years, opposed the grant application when it was aired at a second hearing before the supervisors Monday.
"This is a devil of a lot of money to spend," Lee said, adding that this is a bad time to be seeking a grant when the economy is down and every level of government is cutting budgets.
He said the school system is in greater need, and too many grants are part of the problem of government deficits.
Also, Lee said, only a minority of people in the Craig City area want a municipal water system. Most of the houses in the area are served by individual wells, some of which are said to produce water with a high iron content.
The grant would be used to provide water service to 85 households where 221 people live. Along with the water service, bathrooms would be provided for four houses that do not have them now.
It is uncertain whether or not Craig can win a grant.
For one thing, competition for available money is intense, said Debbie Kendall, a planner with the Fifth Planning District Commission, the agency preparing the grant application for Craig.
A second drawback, she said, is that public support is not as strong as planners would like for it to be.
Only 65 households out of 98 in the project area showed interest in having a municipal water system serving the area. Agencies that would provide a grant require that at least 80 households show interest.
Kendall said this lack of interest will hurt the county's chance to win one of the grants.
However, an application will be filed this month with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development for a block grant. Money for block grants has been provided to Virginia from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Total cost of the project would be $832,947. The block grant would provide $700,000, which would be supplemented by $123,947 in local funds and $9,000 in Virginia Water Project funds.
Local funds would come through the Craig-New Castle Public Service Authority, which would install the water system and provide the water.
Craig City contains 214 households. But the area for the water project is the most built-up section of the subdivision, containing 98 households.
In other action, the supervisors adopted a resolution asking the Virginia Department of Transportation to add a section of Virginia 311, near Mountain View Christian Church, to the county's new six-year highway improvement plan.
The section is a sharp curve just north of the church, the site of a number of accidents.
Zane Jones, chairman of the supervisors, said the board has been trying to get improvements to this curve for many years without success. He said the state gives Craig low priority when allocating primary highway funds.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB