THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603140623
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
If it's Tuesday and the City Council is meeting, more often than not Daniel E. Montague will be seen trudging to the podium to give his 2 cents on what is happening in the city and how the council is doing.
More often than not, Montague's commentary will be sharply critical.
``How much stuff have I agreed with?'' Montague asked rhetorically. ``Not much. They raised my taxes, they cut every service they provide. We are not getting enough bang for our bucks.''
The council, Montague says, is leading a city that overtaxes and wastes money on downtown projects like MacArthur Center. The city also is ignoring challenges like re-invigorating an economy with better paying jobs, he says.
Montague's views have propelled him to run for council from the position he holds now in life as a retired construction boilermaker.
Although he never has held elective office, Montague has a way with words and can turn out pithy phrases that sum up what he believes is Norfolk's adrift state.
He says MacArthur Center, the planned $300 million shopping mall scheduled to be built downtown, ``is going to be ghost town 2010'' because ``people don't go to downtown Norfolk at night.''
Although the city has been striving for a cosmopolitan image, Norfolk really excels in providing low-paying service jobs that do not pay enough for a family to live on, Montague says.
``This area around here is Appalachia on the water,'' Montague said, referring to the section of West Virginia and in other nearby mountain states once renowned for poverty.
If the city wants to help get people off welfare, Montague said, then it has to find ways to develop an economy that supplies decent-paying jobs.
``You need decent-paying jobs to get people off welfare,'' Montague said. ``A woman can't work for six or seven dollars an hour with no benefits and then pay for a baby-sitter. You can't do it.''
Montague also said he favors ``ending the petty bickering'' among the cities of Hampton Roads and developing a more modern mass transit system.
Montague is retired on disability from his job working with chemical plants, dams and general water systems as a construction boilermaker. When working, Montague said he lived all over the United States.
The council, he said, needs to find a way to pay more attention to neighborhoods. His own community, Sherwood Heights, needs new curbs, he said.
But the city cannot raise taxes, he said, because taxes are already too high.
Montague first began appearing before the council during the campaign to bring one of the retired World War II-era battleships to Norfolk. Although other leaders and citizens coalesced around the effort to bring the Iowa to Norfolk, Montague continued a lonely campaign to bring in the Missouri. He argued it was a better ship and more appropriate for Norfolk.
Montague's efforts have not been successful so far, although efforts continue on the campaign to bring the Iowa to Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Photo
DANIEL E. MONTAGUE
Office sought: City Council seat, Superward 7.
Occupation: retired construction boilermaker.
Age: 56.
Education: high school graduate.
Community service: involved in effort to bring USS Missouri to
Norfolk; frequent speaker before City Council.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCILMANIC RACE CANDIDATE
SUPERWARD 7 by CNB