DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997                 TAG: 9703090156

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   66 lines

2 BEACH OFFICIALS VOICE CONCERN ABOUT DELAY IN HURRICANE PROJECT FUNDS

This is about almost-cold feet.

But how almost no one is sneezing, at least not yet.

It began last week when City Councilman William W.Harrison Jr. said he was troubled by the possibility that Congress might not come through with its share of funds for the high-priced Hurricane Protection Project at the Oceanfront.

``I don't have cold feet,'' Harrison said, ``but they're getting chilly.''

His worry is that two phases of the project - the almost-complete section of boardwalk and seawall from First to Eighth streets and the North End seawall due to begin April 1 - could get built and the city would run out of money to do the huge middle segment.

The Boardwalk and retaining wall along the resort strip are in bad shape and need attention much more than the North End, Harrison said.

``We're going to have to do it, come hell or high water,'' he said. So why not switch priorities: focus on the boardwalk and drop the North End?

Harrison represents the North End, where residents have had mixed feelings about being included in the project.

Louis R. Jones, the Bayside representative on council, also was nervous about the funding. ``I don't want to drop the project,'' he said. ``I just want to minimize our risk.''

The $9 million North End project is due to begin in three weeks. A contract already has been awarded to S.B. Ballard Co. of Norfolk, the same company building the lower section of boardwalk and seawall. The Army Corps of Engineers, the government agency in charge of construction, is due to issue a notice to proceed at the end of March.

The massive seawall-boardwalk-drainage-beach-widening project, costing $103 million, is the result of 20 years of negotiations between the city and the federal government.

For its share, the city must come up with $36 million over four years.

The nerve-wracking part is that, even though Congress agrees to do something one year, it does not always appropriate the money.

As he did last year, President Clinton left beach erosion projects out of his budget, but lobbying by coastal legislators, including Virginia's, got the money inserted into the budget.

Even though Clinton has a line-item veto this year, there's little cause for alarm, Congress watchers say.

``This really isn't any different from what's occurred previously,'' said Council member Linwood O. Branch III, who represents the Oceanfront.

``When you go into a partnership after 20 years, you'd expect that both sides will live up to their end of the bargain,'' Branch said.

City officials, who will give the council a briefing Tuesday on funding for the project, said they will not recommend switching priorities.

One of the main reasons, staff members say, is that the North End phase includes a drainage system designed to alleviate flooding in those neighborhoods.

The North End seawall includes 6-foot-wide pipes designed to carry floodwater down to a pump station that will be built at 42nd Street.

If the seawall isn't built, the city will eventually have to build a separate pump station above 42nd Street at a cost of at least $6 million, staff members said.

``Right now, there's nothing afoot to stop us from doing this phase. We are moving ahead with the project as proposed,'' said project engineer Jack Usher.

City staff recall that there have been tense moments over funding before, but Congress came through.

Said city coastal engineer Phillip Roehrs, ``I just know in my heart we're eventually going to get all the funding for the project and complete it.'' KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH EROSION HURRICANES

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