Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 14, 1993 TAG: 9301140439
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES
DATELINE: FINCASTLE LENGTH: Medium
FINCASTLE TOWN COUNCIL SEEKS REDUCTION IN SIZE
Town Council is trying to get smaller.Council voted unanimously Tuesday to amend the town charter to have only six, rather than eight, council members. The amendment now must be approved by the Virginia General Assembly, but Mayor Meredith Waid said there should be no problems in Richmond.
If the General Assembly approves the amendment, the change will be effective in the May 1994 election, when all council members and the mayor will be up for new two-year terms.
Waid said she approached council about the reduction because "it seems increasingly hard to fill the slate." Fincastle's population, according to the 1990 census, is 236, but the town has had eight council members "for years," Waid said.
She recommended the reduction after hearing someone say Fincastle was the most overrepresented town in Virginia.
Neighboring town councils, Waid said, have only six members, and even Roanoke City Council has only seven members, including the mayor.
The smaller number seems more efficient and would make it easier to fill the town's election slate, she said. Also, she said, the change would have no financial impact on the town.
Waid said that although the vote was unanimous, no one on council has volunteered to give up a seat.
In a related matter, council appointed Mary Bess O. Smith to fill the unexpired term of Councilwoman Virginia B. Cronise. Cronise, who served 14 years on council and eight years as town clerk, resigned after Waid did not reappoint her to the Fincastle Christmas Parade Committee. Cronise's resignation was accepted at council's November meeting.
This will be Smith's first term on council. Theresa Tucker, a council member since 1990, has assumed the town clerk post.