THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030506
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
When City Councilman Richard R. Harris first ran for his Nansemond Borough seat, his stand on housing helped propel him into office.
Harris, then a citizens' watchdog, advanced disbanding the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority and having the city take control.
Four years later, housing - as well as a lack of utilities - remains an issue for the 3,500 registered voters and others in the borough. They want dilapidated housing demolished, dirt roads paved, and city water and sewer lines extended to them.
Harris is opposed by Leroy Bennett, chairman of the Redevelopment and Housing Authority, businessman J. Dodd Brooks and civic activist Theodore ``T.C.'' Williams.
The borough ranges from low-income neighborhoods served by outhouses to municipally served communities of huge waterfront houses. Roughly 60 percent black and 40 percent white, it runs from struggling Pughsville, at Chesapeake, to thriving Lake Meade, just north of downtown.
To serve new development while preserving and upgrading existing neighborhoods, the City Council wants the Redevelopment and Housing Authority to focus on redevelopment instead of just housing.
It won't be easy. The council and SRHA have had a somewhat combative relationship, stemming in part from a federal audit two years ago that confirmed that the agency had mismanaged a $1 million grant program. City officials also have been frustrated because the agency has provided little money for revitalization in downtown and in nearby neighborhoods.
But Bennett said that poor communication stems from the city side, and that he's been trying for six months to arrange a meeting of the council and SRHA. Open dialogue is essential, he said.
``The Housing Authority is doing a fabulous job,'' Bennett said, ``but the City Council needs to get along better with the authority.''
``The Housing Authority should be abolished,'' Williams wrote in a recent essay published in The Virginian-Pilot.
Harris said it should be run by the city. ``We (City Council) have no control over it. I have been an advocate to disband the agency.''
Brooks said the city should ``fix what's broken'' before courting new development.
A chunk of the Nansemond Borough was part of Nansemond County, which became the city of Nansemond. The city merged with Suffolk 22 years ago, but some candidates are still uncertain about whether the borough benefited.
``Suffolk had too much city and didn't know what to do with it,'' Williams said, ``and they still don't know what do with it.''
City officials respond that city services cost money. Residents say they'd been taxed for years without rewards. The core city, which has utilities, pays for them: $1.21 per $100 of assessed valuation compared to Nansemond's $1.03.
In his essay, Brooks wrote, ``The financial burden on the citizens of Suffolk is already too great.'' The city needs to concentrate on helping businesses start up downtown, where people are concentrated, instead of depending on finding industrial tenants in the suburbs, he said.
The core city offers infrastructure, he said, ``so I don't understand why the city is so gung-ho about filling industrial parks when there are neighborhoods that don't have curbs, sidewalks and lighting. These people are crying out.''
Harris said development should pay for itself. ``I'm a proponent of managed growth,'' Harris said. ``I don't think the citizens should have to contribute.''
Utilities have always been a need in Suffolk, and many weren't pleased when Harris spearheaded a sewer project in upscale, mostly white Westhaven Lakes while many lower-income neighborhoods await utilities.
``Those people had been waiting for months,'' Harris said of Westhaven Lakes. ``They had raw sewage running down the streets and into the reservoir.''
Bennett said some communities, especially the predominantly black Wilroy area, aren't city priorities.
``We've been without sewer for more than 25 years,'' said Bennett of his community. ``But the nearby Wilroy Industrial Park has sewer.''
Williams, who has long been a critic of SRHA and the City Council, said he now wants to represent the disenfranchised.
``I think I can speed up the process up,'' he said. ``Suffolk city government is supposed to be open.''
The election is Tuesday. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Leroy Bennett
Theodore ``T.C.'' Williams
J. Dodd Brooks
Richard R. Harris
KEYWORDS: ELECTION SUFFOLK CANDIDATES SUFFOLK
BOROUGH COUNCIL RACE by CNB