THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040270
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On the Street
SOURCE: BIll Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Gov. George Allen has a way of jumping right on substantive issues.
Observe how he's moving at flank speed to remove tolls from the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, for instance.
The effort ranks right there with authoring the Bill of Rights or inventing the internal combustion engine.
Sort of brings goose pimples to the nape of your neck. Especially since Virginia Beach City Council members have gone on record as opposing the removal of the tolls.
Hey, what do they know? They're just a bunch of local yokels who are only familiar with local problems and needs.
The Guv, meanwhile, is up in Richmond straining his brain on great concepts, like building a million prisons to house cons who aren't going to be making parole anytime soon.
But, getting back to the expressway, the council's position has been that the tolls should remain in force. They say toll money can be used to pay for the route's maintenance and expansion until 2004, when its original construction debt is to be retired officially.
They say toll money can be used to build a $25 million interchange on the expressway at Witchduck Road, a $15 million interchange at Rosemont Road and $7 million-plus in sound walls along a seven-mile stretch of the highway.
Realizing that they are fighting a losing battle with the Guv, council members last week took another tack. They decided to ask the state to shell out general highway funds to take care of expressway maintenance and expansion once the tolls are yanked.
Past experience has shown, however, that local solons shouldn't hang by the neck until promised state funds arrive in the city's treasury. Risky business, indeed.
What eager beaver pols at the state level are doing by removing the tolls is making expressway operations and maintenance costs a burden on every taxpayer across the Old Dominion.
That includes Gum Stump Holler in Southwest Virginia, where folks have never heard of the expressway and couldn't care less if it has tolls or Christmas tree ornaments.
Right now, as we speak, expressway expenses are paid for by expressway users. Period.
All of this high-level wheel-spinning in Richmond over expressway tolls surely could be more constructively directed at some issues of real local concern.
For instance: WATER! The reason: We ain't got any in Virginia Beach, and we desperately need it. We can't attract major industries or businesses because we don't have our own source.
We can't build more houses because we are dependent upon Norfolk for water. And right now Norfolk is doling it out to Virginia Beach and charging very big bucks for what they pipe into the resort city.
More than two years ago, Norfolk forced Virginia Beach to place its residents on strict water rationing. Beach residents can't wash their cars or sprinkle their lawns, and they must pay a hefty penalty if they are found to exceed certain prescribed limits.
It is generally acknowledged, therefore, that Virginia Beach must get its own source.
To that end Beach officials have been trying for more than 15 years to build a pipeline to Lake Gaston to get water. However, the entire state of North Carolina and the entire federal bureaucracy have successfully blocked efforts to tap into the man-made lake on the Virginia-Tar Heel state border.
And, where is the Guv and his administration when we need 'em? Why, trying to lift those pesky old tolls on the expressway, of course. by CNB