THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150460
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
At first glance, the hurricane protection project looks like a pork barrel plan to widen the Boardwalk and add more sand in front of the resort strip at taxpayers' expense.
But city officials who are fighting for the project's federal funding source say it's much more than that. The construction program, planned for 25 years, is insurance against a direct hit from a hurricane. It's a way for the city to protect the nearly $100 million it has invested in Atlantic and Pacific avenues. And it's a way to provide drainage for thousands of residents who live along the shore, assistant city manager Robert R. Matthias said Tuesday.
Last month, President Clinton proposed cutting funding for the hurricane protection project and hundreds of other programs nationwide that would have been paid for in part by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The proposed cuts would cost the Beach nearly $100 million in federal matching grants over the next 50 years for the hurricane program, sand replenishment for Sandbridge and the regular dredging of Rudee Inlet and Lynnhaven Bay, Matthias said.
To save the projects and the funding, the city has launched an all-out lobbying war.
``We're working every avenue we know to overcome that little (funding) problem,'' Carl Thoren, beach management engineer for the city, told the City Council in a briefing Tuesday. ``We think we can show very clearly that beach erosion and hurricane protection are in the national interest'' and therefore would qualify for the federal funding.
Clinton had proposed cutting money for projects that benefit localities but are not in the national interest.
The city's lobbying strategy is to try to get the Congress to grandfather big-ticket hurricane protection and sandbridge projects, Matthias said, and cross its fingers on the other ones.
Four Virginia congressmen have joined the efforts: Sens. Charles S. Robb, a Democrat, and John W. Warner, a Republican; and Reps. Owen B. Pickett, D-2nd District, and Norman Sisisky, D-4th.
Matthias and council member Linwood O. Branch III are heading to Washington next week to argue the importance of the Beach's projects before a House subcommittee.
``I have great faith in the delegation on the hurricane protection project, because we have such a long history of it,'' Matthias said. ``The Sandbridge project: I think we can make a very good case for it on environmental grounds. go to heck, we're just not going to get any money at all from the federal government for beach renourishment.''
Matthias said the hurricane project is a good investment for both local and federal governments, because it buys so much benefit for the Oceanfront.
One bad storm could force the city to spend $40 million to replace the seawall, much of which was built in the 1920s, Matthias said. With the federal government's help, and for about the same city investment, the Beach would get a new seawall, wider Boardwalk and better drainage system, he said.
KEYWORDS: EROSION SAND REPLENISHMENT HURRICANE U.S. ARMY CORPS
OF ENGINEERS by CNB