SNOW BLOWER CASE PASSED ON TO POLICE

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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 16, 1992                   TAG: 9201160333
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT                                LENGTH: Short
SNOW BLOWER CASE PASSED ON TO POLICE
Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood said Wednesday that he has turned the snow blower case over to state police investigators.
"We want to know if a crime has been committed," Hapgood said.
Investigators have been asked to determine whether a former high-ranking employee of the town of Rocky Mount violated any laws when he purchased a snow blower the town did not need and later borrowed it without authorization.
Former Town Engineer H. Hester Dudley, who retired in October, declined comment Wednesday.
Dudley was acting as agent for the town when he bought the snow blower at a federal surplus sale in January 1991. The purchase price was $75, but town officials say the blower was valued at $695.
Dudley purchased the blower even though it was not compatible with any of the town's equipment.
The blower never was put into service and turned up missing last month during a routine inventory.
Town officials contacted Dudley, who acknowledged that he had taken the snow blower home to test it on his lawn tractor.
Dudley offered to buy the blower, but was told that federal regulations prohibited localities from reselling property sold at surplus sales, according to town officials.
In an interview earlier this month, Dudley said he never thought twice about keeping the machine at his house. Dudley said the town was borrowing a disc harrow that belonged to him in a "kind of trade-around deal."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB