Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993 TAG: 9308040122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RICHMOND - A group of Benedictine monks is seeking to buy the former St. John's Hospital in Goochland County for a monastery and a retreat and conference center.
"The property will help our recruitment of more monks," said Monsignor Benedict McDermott, who wants to increase his 5-year-old Mary Mother of the Church Abbey from 15 to at least 40 monks.
Bon Secour-St. Mary's Corp., which closed the hospital in January, tentatively has accepted the monks' $2.5 million bid. The deal hinges on how the Goochland Board of Supervisors rules on a conditional-use permit and on the monks' ability to raise the money to buy the property.
Goochland County planner Robert Hammond said the order has requested a permit for a monastery, religious retreat center and conference center. "We don't anticipate a lot of opposition."
The monks run Benedictine High School in Richmond. Although the hospital originally was built as a high school, McDermott said there are no plans to move students from Benedictine. - Associated Press
6-year-old boy drowns as mom visits friends
FALLS CHURCH - The mother of a 6-year-old boy who drowned in a cemetery pond said two adults and a teen-ager were supervising him when he disappeared.
Fairfax County police and child protection workers are investigating the death Sunday of Najeeh Adell, said police spokesman Warren Carmichael.
The boy's body was found early Monday in a pond at the National Memorial Park Cemetery. He had walked away from a apartment complex where his mother, Atosha Adell of Falls Church, was visiting friends, police said.
Adell, 32, said her son was being supervised by the adults and the teen-ager, but she declined to elaborate.
Police spokesman Rich Perez said Najeeh had been playing with two younger siblings in a playground at the apartment complex and that it was unclear whether an adult was supervising.
- Associated Press
Miss D.C.'s address riles district officials
WASHINGTON - District of Columbia officials are upset that a Virginia resident will represent the nation's capital in a beauty contest in Hawaii.
Candice Boaz, of Centreville, won the title of Miss D.C. Coed after coming in second in the Virginia contest.
"This is another example of how District of Columbia residents are disrespected," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.
Norton cancelled a photo session with Boaz.
"The district would have been better served if there would have been no representation as opposed to fictitious representation," Norton said.
City officials said they knew nothing of the contest until asked about it by a reporter from The Washington Post.
"I think it's troubling," said Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly.
Boaz, an 18-year-old honor student who will attend James Madison University this fall, said she is not totally comfortable with her crown.
- Associated Press
County lawmakers cool to Fairfax lottery plan
FAIRFAX - A proposal to establish a Fairfax County lottery to raise money for education received a cool reception from two of the county's state legislators.
County supervisors agreed Monday to study the lottery idea as they look for ways to deal with a projected $85 million shortfall next year. A local lottery would require General Assembly approval.
"I don't think the state would be too happy authorizing a local lottery to compete with its own lottery," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County, a member of the Senate Finance Committee.
Del. Robert Harris, R-Fairfax, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said he would keep an open mind, but he agreed the proposal is a long shot.
"He might as well look at putting a riverboat barge out there on Lake Fairfax and have riverboat gambling," Harris said. "That'd probably have a better chance."
- Associated Press
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB