THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701250295
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 60 lines
Whether they live in Deep Creek or Western Branch, residents want their ball fields and tennis courts lighted - and they want enough parks to go around.
Nearly 40 people attended a public hearing on the city's capital budget at Russell Memorial Library in Western Branch on Thursday and their concerns echoed those of Deep Creek residents at a similar meeting the week before. The city's recreational facilities aren't keeping pace with its population, they say.
And, like their counterparts in Deep Creek, residents were told the same thing by City Council members: It's a question of priorities.
``The first priority must be the fiscal integrity of the city,'' said Councilman Dalton S. Edge, who added that other top priorities were education and public safety. ``Recreation is certainly important. It's up to you to decide where the priorities should be put. . . We like to do the things if we can afford them.''
Some of the residents questioned the council's priorities, particularly the decision last fall to build a $9 million convention center in Greenbrier. In order to pay for the center, the council also raised lodging and meals taxes.
``I hear people talking in my restaurant. Not one person thinks it's a good idea,'' said Wilson Garland, who asked that the city not take on any new construction projects until there was enough money to pay for them without raising taxes.
``We hear people tonight say recreation (and lighting for tennis courts). I'd far rather see that than the convention center or the Rhinos.''
William H. Pierce, a former City Council candidate, questioned the city's decision to pay for the convention center through a lease-purchase plan.
Pierce said public referendums on big projects like the convention center were preferable to ``doing an end run with lease purchase. . . .To me, it makes it a whole lot more palatable if I had a voice in that.''
Vice Mayor John W. Butt said he stood behind the convention center decision because he believed the center would attract more businesses to the area. He said he did not think the attitude toward the center expressed by some of the residents was necessarily mirrored by the majority of Chesapeake residents.
``You don't hear from the people who are for something, just from those who are against something,'' Butt said.
Several of the council members warned against thinking there was enough money to do all the projects people are hoping for. There are more than $300 million in unfunded works projected over the next five years.
But council members also downplayed the city's $14 million projected shortfall over the next two years.
``That's not quite true (about the shortfall). That's not really true,'' said Councilman John M. de Triquet. ``We're just at a point where we're unable to provide everything without looking at other methods to fund it.''
``We do have a lot of problems,'' Butt said. ``But I've been all over the country and there are a lot of cities that would like to have the problems that Chesapeake has today.'' ILLUSTRATION: BUDGET HEARING
The next public hearing on Chesapeake's capital budget will be at
7 p.m. Feb. 4 at South Norfolk Community Center.
KEYWORDS: BUDGET CHESAPEAKE CITY COUNCIL