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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 19, 1991                   TAG: 9104190535
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CLINCHCO                                LENGTH: Short

CLINCHCO STARTS SLOW AS NEWEST VA. TOWN

Creating a government in the first newly incorporated town in Virginia in 25 years isn't easy, particularly when there are no town employees, no town hall and no tax base.

But Clinchco's mayor and Town Council members said they knew that when they took office seven months ago.

"With most administrations, it's just a changing of the guard. Everything is already there for them," said Mayor Randall "Tex" Lawler. "We had nothing, just a blank sheet of paper and a lot of plans and dreams."

It has been one year since the General Assembly approved legislation incorporating the small Dickenson County town, which derived its name from the area's biggest employer, Clinchfield Coal Co.

Clinchco's 1,000 residents will begin the 1992 fiscal year paying their first town taxes.

Council members said they feel obligated to keep taxes as low as possible because most residents are elderly or unemployed. The town has just six businesses operating within its limits.

The elected officials said they still believe incorporation was a good idea.

"We were already on the bottom, so we didn't have anything to lose but everything to gain," council member Betty Deel said.

by CNB