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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 8, 1993                   TAG: 9307080394
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: E-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NANCY BELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VINTON FAILS TO GET GRANT, WILL TRY AGAIN NEXT YEAR

The Vinton housewife, who headed a committee of her neighbors in the Midway community, learned recently that a $1.2 million Community Development Block Grant for water and sewer problems there, had not been funded.

"We were real disappointed," she said.

But in the same breath Drewery added, "We'll keep on it."

Midway is a small community between Roanoke and Vinton that has outdated water and sewer lines and floods frequently. Last year, Vinton received $14,500 in state funds to study the area and identify problems.

With comments from Midway residents, who attended a series of community workshops, an engineering consultant prepared the grant.

The grant not only included funds for water and sewer improvements, but also for buying about 10 Tinker Avenue houses that are in a flood plain.

Philip Vanoorbeeck, administrative assistant for Vinton, said many of the communities funded this year still have residents with no water/sewer services at all.

Vinton, however, he said, "is attached demographically to a fairly affluent county, Roanoke County, compared to some of the far Southwest Virginia communities that were funded."

"I think that most of us in Midway realize that the Town of Vinton cannot stop the flooding," said Drewery. "The town gave as much money as it could this year. I think Roanoke County should chip in some."

Vinton spent about $65,000 this year replacing water and sewer lines, work that is still going on. The town would have been required to contribute additional funds if the grant had been approved.

Town Manager Clay Goodman said officials will go to Richmond in August to review criteria for selection of the grants to strengthen the town's position for next year. With council's approval, the town will reapply, he said.

Thirty-two projects, amounting to nearly $22 million, were funded through the Virginia Community Development Block Grant program. Fifty were denied funding. Most of the funded projects involve housing and community development, many in small communities with a high ratio of low-income residents, according to documents in Vinton's rejection packet.