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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994                   TAG: 9401140372
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MONTGOMERY SCHOOLS, COUNTY MAY SHARE PURCHASER

The proposed merger of the finance departments of the Montgomery County government and the school system - a bugaboo that's strained relations between the Board of Supervisors and School Board for nearly two years - may be headed toward a noncontroversial resolution.

A six-member committee of top county and school officials met Wednesday and has reached a point where one portion of the issue - the sharing of a purchasing agent - could be resolvable, according to Larry Linkous, the new chairman of the Board of Supervisors and one of the advocates of consolidation in the past.

The committee has been gathering information on the merger since August. While it has not made a decision yet and is not ready to issue a written recommendation, relations between the two boards are much improved, said Montgomery School Board Chairman Roy Vickers, also one of the six.

``We're a long way from resolving this totally,'' Vickers said. But, ``We're all working together to come up with a solution.''

Vickers credited this change in part to ``a real strong relationship'' he developed with past supervisors Chairman Ira Long, one that Linkous, who took over the chairman's post this week, has pledged to continue.

Linkous said Thursday he would put the purchasing matter on the Jan. 24 supervisors agenda, because a decision has to be made soon so any changes could take effect on July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

That part of the once-contentious issue would be relatively painless to resolve because the supervisors intentionally have not filled the position of county purchasing agent since a retirement last year.

The larger issue of combining the data processing and accounting portions of the school finance department might also be resolvable, largely because of changes made by school Superintendent Herman Bartlett since his arrival last summer, Linkous said.

``Whether the need still exists [for a complete merger] is a point of contention,'' Linkous said.

Supervisor Jim Moore has questioned repeatedly whether such a move is necessary, but a majority of the Board of Supervisors reaffirmed its support for a merger back in October.

Linkous credited Bartlett, who took over from Harold Dodge, with improving the supervisors access to financial information about the schools, the issue that, in part, started the whole ball rolling two years ago.

``Under the old administration that the School Board had, the open and frank discussions we have now didn't exist,'' Linkous said.

Another issue that the Board of Supervisors must resolve is what to do about the money for the school finance department's 1993-94 budget that it put into an escrow account last summer. The balance of that account stood at $353,015 as of Thursday, said county Fiscal Management Director Jeff Lundsford. The supervisors last summer released $117,671 to the School Board from the original amount of $470,686.

by CNB