ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701170085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
A PITTSBURGH AUTHOR and consultant urges communities to work together to tackle problems that transcend municipal boundaries, such as overflowing landfills, disorderly growth and flooding.
Ann Masters was among hundreds this week who heard a regional cooperation expert brought in by the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce.
As a leader of Clean Valley Council - a regional organization promoting recycling and other environmental issues - Masters said she liked William Dodge's message.
"What I heard him saying is, `For the betterment of the citizens and for the betterment of your valley, ignore your boundaries,''' Masters said.
At this point, that may be a dream, Masters added. ``But if we quit dreaming, we've given it all up.''
Dodge, an author and consultant in Pittsburgh, urges communities to form networks of people from cities and counties to tackle common problems - issues that transcend municipal boundaries, such as overflowing landfills, disorderly growth and flooding. A regional approach also brings the greatest success in economic development, Dodge said.
Dodge graded the Roanoke area's cooperation as good, telling 570 people at the chamber's annual meeting Wednesday, "The Roanoke Valley has a solid base of cooperation to build upon."
He said the region doesn't have any major hurdles to cooperating on a greater level. In an interview, he added: "There are certainly some organizations, some individuals, probably some jurisdictions that are not excited about the idea of cooperating in particular areas at this point, but that's the nature of the beast."
Dodge's 3 1/2-day visit to Roanoke, for which the chamber paid him $4,000, was intended as a learning experience for community leaders and a source of feedback from an outside expert. The chamber is pushing regional cooperation as a way of lowering the cost of public services and, thus, freeing money for economic development.
The chamber said it serves a region that includes the Roanoke Valley, but extends south to Martinsville, west to Wytheville, north to Lexington and east to Lynchburg, said John Stroud, the chamber's president.
One regional planner called attention to what he termed Dodge's important footnote: Efforts that involve less than a designated region deserve support even if some areas are left out.
```Region' doesn't mean the same thing for each job or challenge,'' said Lee Osborne, chairman of the Roanoke-based Fifth Planning District Commission. The commission serves the Roanoke area, Alleghany Highlands and Craig County.
Dodge also recommended, Osborne said, the celebration of regional projects that work. A good local program to celebrate, when complete, will be creation of the Fifth Planning District Regional Alliance this summer, Osborne said. The alliance of government, school and civic representatives will apply for state economic development money under a 1996 state law that rewards cooperative ventures.
Robert Crouse, who leads a coalition of Catawba-area civic leagues, said Dodge planted the seed for creation of a valleywide coalition of civic leagues. ``We'll jump off and probably begin to explore it,'' Crouse said.
Eldon Karr, president of the Bent Mountain Civic League, said Dodge believes that where there is one large community today, the future holds ``a cooperative network of communities of people.'' Karr agrees and is involved in forming Roanoke County's 12 neighborhood community planning districts to tackle land-use issues.
"If we can continue this process, we are really on the cutting edge of where we need to go," Karr said.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Dodgeby CNB