Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990                   TAG: 9005250329
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Short

SWEENEY ASKS THAT ANOTHER JUDGE HEAR CASE

"I am so situated that I feel I should not hear this matter," Sweeney wrote in a letter to the chief judge of the 24th Circuit Court.

Richard Cranwell, Bedford County's attorney in the case, told Chief Judge Richard S. Miller that he would be satisfied if any of the circuit's four other judges heard the legal motions. In a letter to Miller, Cranwell did ask that another judge be selected soon because of time constraints in the case.

The county sued the city and owners of a county nursing home after the nursing home asked to be annexed into the city of Bedford. The nursing home had asked the Commission on Local Governments for annexation in order to gain water and sewer service into the city, which currently has a moratorium on water and sewer extensions to county property.

The county asked for an injunction against the annexation, arguing that the the city had illegally encouraged the annexation request.

The city has asked that a special three-judge court be appointed to hear the matter. The county this week asked that the request be denied and the issue be heard by a Circuit Court judge.

The Commission on Local Government in Richmond has scheduled time during this summer for considering the annexation request.