Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994 TAG: 9403300155
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Because of the artificially low poverty-level statistics, Montgomery is eligible to apply for a $2.95 million grant in connection with President Clinton's "re-inventing government" agenda. One census tract in Radford is similarly affected by students and is also eligible; the county and city could petition to include an adjacent tract, which includes the Radford Army Ammunition Plant.
The county Board of Supervisors on Monday authorized its staff to prepare an application to be designated one of 30 rural enterprise communities across the country. Supervisor Jim Moore joked about the county depending on "starving students."
The program is designed to encourage local governments to try innovative approaches to improving their communities in connection with detailed long-range plans.
The $2.95 million could be spent over 10 years on worker retraining, a small business revolving loan fund and other programs, according to county Administrator Betty Thomas.
Regional planner Holly Lesko said some of those other possibilities include housing rehabilitation and assistance, and health care and educational programs for people in need.
Though Montgomery is eligible because of the presence of college students, the New River Valley as a region does have a need for the assistance, she said.
"We exhibit a lot of the fundamental distress signals that are demonstrated by areas with economic downturns," Lesko said.
County grants coordinator Cindy Martin and Lesko, who is with the New River Planning District Commission, will be working against a mid-June deadline to get the paperwork to Gov. Allen's office for his approval. It then must make it to the federal government by June 30.
Much of their work has been done, however, because the supervisors agreed to base the application on a plan developed in the wake of the shrinking defense industry and layoffs at the Radford arsenal. That plan, the Economic Adjustment Strategy, has been in the works for two years and is due out in May.
To qualify to apply to the highly competitive program, an area must have 20 percent or more of its population below the poverty level, Lesko said.
That's where the Tech students come in. Because they account for so much of the population, and because they generally have low incomes, the population below the poverty level is as high as 50 percent in some of the seven census tracts around Blacksburg. By comparison, the more rural Shawsville-area census tract had 16 percent of its population below the poverty level in 1990, according to census data.
In all likelihood, not all seven Blacksburg-area tracts will be included in the application, Lesko said. Instead, planners will try to choose areas where the assistance would be most appropriate. Though any programming paid for by the grant would have to occur in one of the census tracts, people from all across the region could participate in the programs, she said.
by CNB