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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 27, 1993                   TAG: 9307290456
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SIMPLIFYING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

ON THE issue of city-county relations I offer my opinion. We should abolish all towns, cities, and counties and merely have local government, basing services on density of population. The simple approach is to use existing county boundaries and names. Thus my residence would be Botetourt, Virginia. Of course communities or neighborhoods could retain their identities, and the area of a local government would be divided for the purpose of providing services. Also I favor a system of districts for the purpose of electing the governing body.

I came from mostly rural Washington County, but have lived in most of the major sections of Virginia, including several years in the Richmond and Roanoke areas. Distinctions in lifestyle that once existed between rural and urban areas no longer exist. If we all had evolved into one class of people living in a two hundred thousand dollar house, our society would be much different. But this utopia has not come to pass and should not be expected.

From my casual observation of the Richmond and Roanoke areas I conclude that if a city is not allowed to annex additional territory, the percentage of lower-income people increases. This causes the economy to become unbalanced. The legal battles over annexation are costly and I consider very wasteful. We should seek the most practical arrangement for all of our citizens. We do care and want to share with one another. ERNEST D. CLARK ROANOKE

by CNB