DATE: Tuesday, October 7, 1997              TAG: 9710070294

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Guy Friddell

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

HOLTON, EX-GOVERNOR WITH ZEST, TO SPEAK AT LEAGUE SEMINAR

The only way to get local governments to work together for their common good ``is to bribe 'em or hit 'em over the head,'' former Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton said Monday.

His jest contained a good measure of truth gleaned from his four years in office (1970-1974).

Examples from his experience will be part of his presentation Thursday evening at a seminar on regionalism sponsored by the South Hampton Roads League of Women Voters at the Airport Hilton.

Barry DuVal, president of the Hampton Roads Partnership, will moderate the session, which will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and a dinner at 6. Admission is $25. For information, call 627-3396.

Program Chairwoman Susan Goranson said Monday that Oklahoma City Mayor Ronald Norick was chosen as the evening's main speaker because of his success in harnessing disparate factions to work on civic projects enhancing his city.

Holton's success in spreading harmony stemmed from his zest with the job. As the first Republican governor in Virginia in a century, his fairness evoked cooperation from Democrats. He appointed officials on merit, without regard to race, age, sex, or political party.

``He was of an inquiring mind and much more attached to the future than to the old order,'' former Gov. Colgate W. Darden Jr. once noted. ``Holton was a courageous experimenter.''

He awakened his three children by standing at the bottom of the stairs in the governor's mansion and calling, ``Opportunity time! Opportunity time!'' - which was the way he looked at his own day.

In 1966, Virginia localities had shied away from regional planning districts proposed by a study commission headed by Marshall Hahn, president of Virginia Tech. Holton worked to pull them together.

Early in his term, Roanoke city officials sought funds for a sewage treatment plant. They assumed that Holton, a hometown boy, would accede to their wishes.

After conferring with the head of the state water control board, Holton hinged the grant on condition that the proposed plant be enlarged in size and quality to serve the entire Roanoke Valley. They fell in line. The resultant development of Smith Mountain Lake as a recreational site for second homes has poured thousands of dollars into the valley's tax coffers.

The ports in Newport News, Portsmouth and Norfolk competed fiercely among themselves. Holton supported a study headed by Norfolk Sen. Edward Breeden Jr. offering incentives to the three localities to unify their ports under the Virginia Port Authority. Its traffic of containers shipped from abroad and along the coast rose from 100,000 annually to nearly a million, he noted.

In a giant step to encourage regional cooperation, the 1996 General Assembly adopted the Regional Competitiveness Act creating a regional incentive fund for localities that deliver services and plan together.

The incentive fund provided bonuses based on the proportion of the state's population within each region. Hampton Roads' share of pie this year came to $2.3 million.

It's a nourishing concept. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

The fairness of Linwood Holton, the first Republican governor in

Virginia in a century, evoked Democratic cooperation.

WANT TO GO?

The seminar on regionalism will begin with a reception at 5:30

p.m. and a dinner at 6 on Thursday. Admission is $25.

For details, call 627-3396.

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