Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 9, 1991 TAG: 9104090454
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
The board picked from among three redistricting maps drawn by a citizen committee and viewed by citizens during a week of public display.
Among comments collected from citizens last week, eight people said they supported the plan the supervisors chose Monday. One person voiced support for a second plan.
Seven others endorsed a third plan, but five other people said they would support anything but that map.
The point of redistricting is simple: getting an equal number of residents in each of the seven Board of Supervisors' districts. Agreeing on how to move district lines to get to that point isn't so easy.
A Bedford representative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was among people who expressed support for the map the supervisors tentatively selected.
Raymond Parker said he supported either of two of the plans that extended District 7 to include the Bunker Hill precinct, currently in District 3.
That precinct has a 31 percent non-white population, the highest in the county, according to census figures.
By adding the precinct to the election district that surrounds Bedford, officials would "unite what voter potential there is with Liberty High and Goode precincts," Parker said, according to the committee's report.
Even still, it may be a while before any of Bedford County's seven districts has a population with a majority of non-whites, the census figures show. As it stands, 3,800 people who are not white make up little more than 8 percent of the county's total 45,656 people.
And the number of non-whites in Bedford County has decreased in the past decade, while the overall population has grown by 30 percent. In 1981, the census reported 4,037 non-whites in the county.
Among elements of the proposed redistricting map, it would:
Cut substantially the area of Supervisor T.D. Thornton's District 4, near Lynchburg, where the population has shot up since 1981.
More than 1,700 residents of the southern edge of that district - including the New London precinct - would become part of District 3. Almost 400 Boonsboro residents on the north end of the district would become part of District 5.
Adjust District 3 in the south part of the county near Smith Mountain Lake to make it long and skinny.
Supervisor James Teass would pick up New London's precinct, but lose the Bunker Hill precinct to District 7 and lose Mountain View precinct to District 2.
Supervisor Dale Wheeler's District 1, on the western edge of the county near Vinton, would lose about 400 residents on the north to District 6.
The supervisors will hold a public hearing on the plan April 29.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB