Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 27, 1991 TAG: 9103270216
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
He was a minority of one.
"I just want you to tell me that you think it would be better for Giles County, as a whole, to be split," said committee member Barbara Stafford, R-Pearisburg, who would find herself in the same district as Del. Tommy Baker, R-Radford.
"Yes ma'am," Mitchem said. "I think Giles County would benefit from having two votes in the legislature. . . . I wish we could get three or four or five."
Since the four-laning of U.S. 460, he said, the western part of the county leans toward retail outlets in West Virginia and the eastern part toward Montgomery County. Mitchem said many people in eastern Giles County work in Montgomery, and a growing number of people from Montgomery County are moving into that part of Giles, giving those two areas a community of interest.
Mitchem works for the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance, but he made it clear that he was speaking only for himself. He also serves on the board of the Giles County Chamber of Commerce, "and, to the best of my knowledge, the board has not taken a stand on this issue."
Howard Morris had spoken earlier on behalf of the chamber, asking that Giles County not be divided "to enhance the political future of others." Pearisburg Town Manager Kenneth Vittum, who is Giles chamber president, said later that Mitchem's views did not represent those of other members.
Other speakers at this first hearing on the working draft for new House of Delegates districts urged the committee to leave their localities intact, especially those in Giles and Tazewell counties.
Committee Chairman Ford Quillen, D-Gate City, said, in effect, lots of luck.
"We would like, if we can, to make adjustments a little more palatable," he said. "We also very much don't want counties divided if it can be helped."
But it probably can't be helped, he said.
Herbert H. "Hub" Brown, vice chairman of the Giles County Board of Supervisors, said that governing body favored leaving Giles intact and passed a resolution stating that "we, as a bipartisan board, expect the General Assembly to act in a bipartisan manner as well." The redistricting draft has been criticized as Democrats targeting Republicans by putting so many in the same districts.
Brown was joined by School Superintendent Robert McCracken, County Administrator Ken Weaver and Narrows Town Manager Kurt Hodgen, who also asked the committee not to divide Giles. "More does not seem to be better," Weaver said.
Del. Robert Ball Sr., D-Richmond, and Del. Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke, were the only other representatives of the 20-member committee at the hearing, prompting Stafford to say that she was sorry more had not come to the Southwest Virginia hearing. She said she planned to attend the remaining hearings - in Northern Virginia and Tidewater today and in Richmond Thursday.
Quillen said work would probably start on the redistricting bill Thursday night or Friday morning. "It's moving pretty fast."
Nearly half of the about 70 people at the hearing were from Tazewell County, which has been divided among three House districts for the past 10 years. Giles has never been divided.
Jack Reasor, vice chairman of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors, said Mitchem is wrong about such a situation being beneficial. It leaves the divided county a minority in all its districts, he said, and the delegates naturally must represent the majority interests.
Reasor presented an alternate plan to leave Tazewell County intact in a district that would include Russell and Smyth counties and part of Buchanan County. That would leave Buchanan divided, he said, but Tazewell has had its division and "for those counties now being divided for the first time . . . you must take your turn."
"The guy who asked to be split many ways, good luck to him," Bluefield Mayor Cecile Barrett said.
Botetourt County Administrator John Williamson said his county would go from being the largest segment of its current district to the smallest parts of three districts under the plan.
"We are coming to accept the fact, I think, that Botetourt County will have to be split," he said, but asked that it be two ways instead of three.
Radford Vice Mayor Polly Corn said that city has several cooperative ventures under way with Montgomery and Pulaski counties, and that the region has a further community of interest because of its educational institutions.
"If you happen to have two representatives and one of them is not doing what you think he should be doing for you, you can change that every two years," Ball said.
"But then you've lost two years," said Corn.
Keywords:
POLITICS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB