DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709240005

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:  133 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

VIRGINIA BEACH

A sad tale of two city agencies

Elected officials pass judgment on a variety of matters. Overall, most of the decisions reflect at least a modicum of reasoned analysis. However, Virginia Beach City Council's recent handling of the $12 million request from the Community Services Board, to purchase and renovate a hotel building and an adjacent property on Bonney Road, was seriously flawed.

The council's oversight of this purchase is particularly exasperating in light of the fact that it was most unforgiving when, a little over two years ago, the School Board landed unbeknownst into a pre-existing financial quagmire.

With unprecedented venom, this very council seized the opportunity to openly and severely castigate the School Board for allegedly overspending its budget allocation by $12 million.

Is there an ethical or legal equivalence here? After all, $12 million is $12 million.

What we have is ``A Tale of Two City Agencies,'' one of them the School Board and the other the City Council.

If professional staff members had done their homework, and if council had asked questions, the $12 million for the Community Services Board could have been expended to purchase a property better suited to the intended purpose. At least the $12 million in the School Board case was spent on the educational needs of children.

Ulysses V. Spiva

and Elsie M. Barnes

Former School Board members

Virginia Beach, Sept. 12, 1997

Project approved without scrutiny

It is most frustrating to read in the paper facts that were known five months earlier. Dennis Wool and the Community Services Board staff were advised by consumer advocates that the site selected to serve the mentally retarded, mentally ill and substance-abuse services would not meet the needs of these three populations.

As it was, the concept was presented by CSB without adequate consumer input or proper structural evaluations and accepted, unchallenged, by City Council. The council has been sympathetic to the needs of our special people and apparently voted to spend $12 million without a full analysis of the commitment. Individuals wouldn't enter into a contract for a home without thorough investigation. How, then, can council spend taxpayers' money without adequate public hearings?

Even though we are parents of a severely disabled child who needs and uses these services, we urge City Council not to commit to floating bonds to cover the 43 percent increase in projected cost. This whole project needs detailed architectural drawings and a realistic analysis of projected growth potential over the next decade. The logistics of housing the three disabilities separately must be fully explored and resolved before any additional monies are committed to this project.

Terry and Linda Ritter

Virginia Beach, Sept. 17, 1997

PFIESTERIA

What took so long to fight fish killer?

After reading your Sept. 18 story, ``Allen targets funds to fight fish killer,'' I got somewhat upset.

I work at the city waterworks and belong to professional groups like the American Waterworks Association. Approximately two years ago, their newsletter carried a story of finding Pfiesteria piscicida in North Carolina; even that a lab tech had been zapped and suffered all the symptoms.

Why aren't we hearing anything from North Carolina? And where were Allen and the other Chesapeake Bay good guys then? This thing has a known two-year head start. It looks as if all our leaders have left us to catch up to it.

Paul L. Beck

Norfolk, Sept. 18, 1997

OCEANA

Navy needs to cut back on jet noise

My wife and I have owned a tax preparation/accounting business in the London Bridge shopping area for four years. We are directly in the path for aircraft landing or taking off on Oceana's runway 135/315. We are also in the landing pattern for aircraft circling around to land on runway 045, and in the high-noise level/crash-zone area depicted by the study.

Basically, we have no qualms with the Navy and its flying aircraft out of Oceana Naval Air Station; it's really the way in which they are flown during takeoffs and landings. Many times, the three women who work for me have been scared to death when the jets, flying really low with their engines screaming, land and take off. We cannot talk on the telephone or hold a conversation with our clients because of the tremendous noise level.

I am retired civil service of 33 years and was in the Naval Air Reserves for 32 years. In my numerous travels with the Reserves across the country I know that many city governments have worked with the military bases. Their aircraft practice noise-abatement procedures religiously. And because they are rigidly enforced by squadron and base commanders, and monitored by the local residents, those procedures reduced the noise complaints markedly.

We like the Navy being here and the business that comes along with that fact, but if something could be done from the Navy's end to reduce the noise in the London Bridge area, we would like them a whole lot better.

Thomas W. Martinette

Virginia Beach, Sept. 21, 1997

VIRGINIA BEACH

Corporate park left in shambles

I'm writing this letter as I sit at what was at one time, I suppose, a nice park at the intersection of Corporate Landing and Dam Neck. If this park is meant to entice prospective corporate tenants to set up shop here, it won't.

The wonderful concrete step fountain is not running. Cans, cups and trash float in the catch-water basin. Trash is thrown everywhere, trash cans are overflowing. One whole section of the brick paved walkway is either gone or never finished. The grass is in great need of being cut. Weeds need to be pulled out of what must be very expensive shrubbery. Lastly, it looks as if at one time there were lights around the paved paths; all that is left are concrete and metal stumps.

This park has too much potential as a relaxation/lunch oasis to be abandoned in this way. I'm not sure who is responsible for this park, whether it's the city or a private developer. Whoever is responsible needs to get out there and straighten out the mess.

Terence Breen

Virginia Beach, Sept. 18, 1997

THE MILITARY

Ignore rank, race in quest for justice

The thought of those charges against Sgt. Maj. of the Army Gene McKinney being racist is crazy. This individual is a career noncommissioned officer and holds the highest enlisted position in the Army. He knows the difference between right and wrong.

Personally, I don't care what color a person is or what rank that person holds. From the lowest private to the highest general, if you violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice or use a position of authority (your rank) to make someone have sex with you, you deserve whatever punishment you get.

I have seen white senior NCOs get charged with adultery by a lower-ranking enlisted female, and the 20-year NCO retire with full benefits while that young female has her career ruined and ends up with nothing.

Our system of justice in the military is severely flawed.

Michael E. Terry

Virginia Beach, Sept. 20, 1997

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