Roanoke Rapids Mayor Emery Doughtie says he has three concerns going into an August 26 meeting with the area’s legislative delegation — theater debt, Interstate 95 tolling and school merger.
The session is set for 9:30 a.m. in the first floor conference room of city hall and will include discussion of local issues, review of pending Community Development Block Grant projects, a bus tour of the Vine Street area and other relevant areas.
Doughtie said he wants to see what grant funding is available to assist the city with its debt on the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.
While the delegation may not help, he said perhaps they will have info on federal resources.
“That’s more than a thorn,” the mayor said of the theater. “It’s affecting everybody in the whole area. It’s affecting everything we do. We want to see if there’s any information or guidance we can get.”
He said he wants to see whether the city can get low interest or no interest loans and instead of having a 20-year payoff on the venue. “We were able to get through this year without a tax increase,” Doughtie sad, explaining next year the city might have to.
The mayor said he also wants to get information on the possible tolling of Interstate 95 from the delegation. “Every person I’ve talked to seems to be against it.”
If Virginia successfully tolls the interstate, Doughtie believes since it is a federal highway  there should be some way the government can redistribute a portion of the money that state receives to communities which will be affected by it.
While there has been no official discussion about school merger, Doughtie said he wants to address the issue with the delegation. “We need to talk about the negative aspects of merger.”
The mayor said he is looking at the issue through economics. “If you have industry looking at coming to the area and it provides jobs, you have to look at the quality of the students. Right now Roanoke Rapids on average has a higher level of competent students graduating from high school. If the others bring up their systems I could see their point. They see it as a cost saving measure.”