DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997             TAG: 9703260008

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:  124 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

DONATIONS

Good will from Goodwill

Thank you, Hampton Roads. Last year your donations of clothing, household items and furniture to Goodwill Industries of Hampton Roads helped us provide job training and employment services to 347 people with disabilities; 61 were placed into competitive employment in our community.

Goodwill Industries is proud that four influential publications and a respected watchdog group have ranked Goodwill highly in such areas as efficient and effective use of revenues, worthiness of public support and accountability. The Nonprofit Times, U.S. News & World Report, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine and the American Institute of Philanthropy have given Goodwill high grades and described us variously as a ``standout good-guy'' charity and an organization in which people can truly believe.

These ratings affirm the valuable, quality service Goodwill provides to people with disabilities in the Hampton Roads area.

Cal Lassetter

Volunteer president

1997 Goodwill Industries

Board of directors

Norfolk, March 18, 1997

PORTS

New bill squelches

right to know

In response to the March 11 article, ``Allen signs three bills to help port authority be more competitive,'' I am writing to express my concern over the bad business of these bills.

Now that the citizens of Hampton Roads and especially Norfolk are waking up to the growth effects of Norfolk International Terminals - i.e., train traffic, truck traffic, proposed construction of underpasses through neighborhoods - they are starting to realize what it will mean for the East Coast's second-largest port to virtually double its volume of business over the next few years.

This in itself is not bad. It is great business for Norfolk and Hampton Roads. The problem is: Now Governor Allen has gone and pandered to his small group of friends, mostly big businessmen associated with the Virginia Port Authority, and signed this bill, which will end their requirement to release their customers' proprietary information under state Freedom of Information laws. The Pilot story made this sound like a good thing.

Here is why it is not: The VPA, which runs NIT and three other ports in the area, is a nonprofit organization. With its explosive growth being planned and cultivated, it is going to become an economic superpower within the state, while still operating under a nonprofit status. That means it will actually be making a huge amount of money for the state and the handful of businessmen already associated with it. However, with Allen's new confidentiality bill, it is too bad for the rest of us. The information that is supposed to be every citizen's right to view has now been taken away under the guise of a glossy bill intended to eliminate ``competition.''

If Governor Allen really wants to help the citizens of Virginia to prosper, he should let us have the information that is rightfully ours. We want to ride the port's success into the next century, also.

Kenneth Gardner

Norfolk, March 19, 1997

VIRGINIA BEACH

Soccer generation is all grown up

I'm not a resident of Virginia Beach and can't speak to the details of the proposed soccer stadium. From a broader perspective, however, I think there is little doubt that soccer is here to stay and will only grow.

For years we have heard predictions that professional soccer will be successful when the generation who grows up playing soccer reaches adulthood. That generation - my generation - has now reached adulthood. We are hungry for a professional soccer league, and we are many. Most critical to the long-term outlook is that the corporate sponsors and advertisers have now come to understand the enormous market potential we represent.

Dave Rosenfield, the manager of the local baseball team, was quoted as saying, ``If anybody believes that soccer can ever be a major-league sport, you'll have to convince me. . . . I think I'll be an astronaut by then.'' I love baseball, too, but not nearly in the same way as I do soccer. Perhaps Mr. Rosenfield ought to get used to the idea of wearing a space helmet.

Michael A. Babyak

Durham, N.C., March 19, 1997

VIRGINIA BEACH

City's potential dribbling away

I can't believe the number of Virginia Beach residents who are content to just sit idle while the potential of this region lies just outside our reach. Opportunities such as the NHL Rhinos and the soccer stadium are ideal ways to enter into major-league sports, and a great number of residents scoff at this chance of a lifetime.

Will they embrace the PGA golf club the same way you rallied around the Rhinos? Or will they complain about the increase in traffic on Princess Anne Road? For Virginia Beach to move forward into the next century, we have to start somewhere. Building a multipurpose 18,000- to 20,000-seat arena would have served a multitude of purposes and would not have become the white elephant that everybody thought.

The Admirals, Mariners, Tides and our fixation with minor-league sports is not the answer. While my hard-earned tax money wastes away with the empty pipes of the Lake Gaston pipeline and the Beach's incomplete hurricane wall, I have to wonder in which direction this city is going.

Ron Cocuzzi

Virginia Beach, March 20, 1997

NORFOLK

Library needs 1 percent funding

Now is the time for Norfolk City Council to shoulder a fundamental responsibility to its citizens: renewed support for its libraries. The Norfolk Public Library initiative, asking for budget funding of 1 percent of the city budget, is well-timed and badly needed.

As a former president of the Friends of Norfolk Public Library, I watched with dismay the steady decline of library facilities and services, and the deep erosion in the quality of the collection, until Sally Reed arrived. I, like so many other Norfolkians, routinely turned to other area libraries for their advantages in automation, services, broader hours and expanding collection. In comparison, Kirn Library seemed dark, antiquated, cumbersome and hard to access.

But recent changes at Kirn are impressive. I have rediscovered the amazing resources of the Sargeant Room. I am impressed with the ease and speed of the automated system. Sally Reed has moved the librarians to the front desk, making it easier to request books through interlibrary loan, get research help, explore the Internet and probe the collection.

The library initiative ought to receive council's full support. I urge City Council to endorse a return to 1 percent budgeting.

Jo Ann M. Hofheimer

Norfolk, March 17, 1997

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