DATE: Wednesday, July 9, 1997               TAG: 9707090442

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CURRITUCK                         LENGTH:   74 lines

BOARDS TRIM THE OVERWEIGHT ALBEMARLE COMMISSION

The Albemarle Commission might be a good candidate for a before and after photo.

Once flabby with bureaucracy and on the verge of collapse, its 10 governing counties have all agreed to slim the commission down from a board of 64 members to just 14.

The fat trimming included all the full-time staff except Executive Director Thomas Gard. And the first order of business for the new board will be to clear its debts of nearly $100,000.

``This is a positive step in the right direction,'' Gard said of the commission's revamping, complete with a new constitution.

Working alone to handle all the affairs of the commission, though, has Gard running from one duty to another without doing anything well, he said.

``It's very frustrating,'' Gard said Tuesday. ``I don't have the resources I would like to do the clean up I would like to have done by now.''

Yet, he said, ``There is light at the end of the tunnel.''

Just a few weeks ago, the Albemarle Commission appeared on its way out. Five of the 10 counties voted to disband it. But some salesmanship by Gard and a continued desire by the counties to keep a united voice in Raleigh convinced members to give it another try. This time, though, there would be a well-defined charter that followed by state laws governing such regional organizations. Pasquotank County Attorney Ike McRee spent weeks drafting it.

With the new charter in hand, Currituck County commissioners voted Monday night to maintain membership on the Albemarle Commission. Dare and Pasquotank counties have done the same. Gard said all the counties have agreed to the new constitution, at least verbally.

The Currituck board appointed Owen Etheridge to the commission.

``The sooner we get started the better off we're going to be,'' Etheridge said Tuesday. ``I think we're going to have to reorganize the Albemarle Commission and save the programs they did best.''

``A lot of this is going back to the original roots of the Albemarle Commission,'' Currituck County Manager Bill Richardson said Monday about the new charter.

Formed in 1970, the Albemarle Commission is best known for administering such programs as Meals on Wheels for the elderly and Community Development Block Grants to revitalize blighted neighborhoods. In the past, the commission required a budget of between $70,000 and $100,000.

In recent years some mismanagement and hefty payrolls pulled the commission into heavy debt. For at least a year, counties considered scrapping it.

If the counties had dissolved the commission and started all over, the federal agencies would have sent the group to the back of the long line of regional organizations asking for money, said Pasquotank County Manager Randy Keaton during a recent county meeting.

In spite of the new optimism over the Albemarle Commission, Pasquotank County commissioners have put in their two-year notice towithdraw from it, McRee said.

``When you get right down to it, in terms of planning, Pasquotank County does not need the Albemarle Commission,'' McRee said. The county contributes nearly $20,000 annually to the commission.

The new bylaws require each of the member counties to appoint a delegate from its governing board to serve one year. Four counties will choose an additional delegate to ensure that at least four minorities serve on the board.

Beginning in alphabetical order, Camden, Chowan, Currituck and Dare counties will choose the first additional delegates. Other members, Gates, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington, get an extra delegate in subsequent years.

Cities no longer will have representation on the board.

Ike Battle of Gates County will not serve as the Albemarle Commission board chairman because of the new charter's membership requirements. Gates County will not be able to appoint an extra delegate until next year. Battle had just been elected as chairman in January.

Battle, however, supported the reorganization.

``It's probably the best thing that could happen at this time,'' Battle said. ``Tom Gard is doing a good job, and he will be able to work well with the new organization.''

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