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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 26, 1994                   TAG: 9411280010
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE MORPHING OF BEDFORD

IT'S ALWAYS encouraging when officials of joined-at-the-hips jurisdictions consider a changed relationship that might benefit residents of both localities. But it's hard to see how a proposed consolidation plan for Bedford city and Bedford County offers significant benefits for anyone.

Oh, it may offer reassurance of sorts to a few residents of the Forest section of Bedford County, who fantasize that a big, bad wolf called Lynchburg is at their door, ready to gobble them up.

The plan would merge Bedford county and city into one supercity - weirdly Virginia's largest in land size, but a city in name only.

City status might insulate some Foresters from fears that Lynchburg (assuming the state ever lifts its ban on annexation) might one day make a grab for the suburbs. To be sure, losing Forest would reduce Bedford County's tax base.

But the consolidation movement seems predicated on little more than unspoken fears and unwarranted assumptions.

The General Assembly has given no inkling it intends to remove its moratorium against cities' unfriendly takeovers of county lands. Nor has Lynchburg issued such a threat. Even if it were free someday to attempt annexation, the move would not automatically succeed. For that matter, it shouldn't be viewed as necessarily a terrible prospect anyway.

What, meanwhile, might voters have wrought for Bedford?

The existing city of Bedford would become a ``shire'' within the new, consolidated city. It would retain a considerable degree of independence, and the shiresters would continue to receive the same services as they do now. Bedford City Councilwoman Joanne Grahame, one of the consolidation plan's framers, says city residents would hardly notice a difference.

So what's the point? Why go to the bother of morphing a nicely functioning small city into something called a shire?

The only sure accomplishment would be to further compound the irrationality of Virginia's local-government structure. One has to wonder if the state is destined to witness its cities seeking to dissolve themselves into counties, and its counties seeking to become cities. This is really getting ridiculous.

Granted, consolidation's traditional benefits - less duplication of services, for example, and greater coordination in long-term planning for growth and development - shouldn't be overlooked.

But in Bedford's case, the city and county governments already have joined together in providing schools, courts and other services, and have demonstrated an admirable willingness to plan together for the future. Most of consolidation's potential has already been realized.

This week, a group of Bedford city residents dropped a legal challenge to a merger referendum, brought on grounds that petitions had been technically improper. This presumably clears the way for a vote next year.

But before Bedford voters say go-go to a merger that would transform a mostly rural community into an odd-duck city and introduce a new animal called a shire into Virginia's local-government jungle, they should ask themselves if this game is really worth the candle.

For their part, state lawmakers should ask themselves if they are content to let local-government organization remain such a mess.

by CNB