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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 29, 1994                   TAG: 9411290129
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BEDFORD CONTRACT AWARDED

The Bedford County Board of Supervisors on Monday awarded a $5.1 million contract to Forest-based Fauber Architects to renovate the Bedford County Courthouse and the former Bedford Bulletin newspaper office.

Fauber, one of 10 firms to submit proposals, also designed the county's administration building, which was erected in 1991. The courthouse renovation plans include major interior renovations of the courthouse and the addition of a parking deck on the back of the courthouse.

Bedford County will pay $4.84 million of the project and Bedford will contribute $608,000. Construction will begin in October 1995 and conclude in April 1997. Preliminary drawings of the project should be released in January.

Built in 1930, the courthouse is the fourth incarnation of Bedford County's court building. The third courthouse, which it replaced, was built in 1834.

Also Monday, the supervisors made a one-time appropriation of more than $366,000 to the county school system, which ran over budget this year.

The supervisors voted 6-1 to give the money to the school board. Chairman Dale Wheeler cast the sole dissenting vote, saying, "I'm opposed to this. But we do need to handle this immediately and tools are now in motion to keep it from ever happening again."

In September, the board indefinitely tabled a motion to appropriate the funds until the school board could assure the county that it would not run over budget again without giving the county advance warning. Now, the county administrator's office, the county treasurer and the school board treasurer meet monthly to reconcile their books. The county also is studying the possibility of merging the school's computer system with the county's.

A disagreement over the amount the school system ran over budget erupted earlier this year due to a difference in the way the county and the school board keep their books. The county said the school system was $366,000 in the red; the school system said the amount was only $122,000.

The schools came up with the lower figure because, as required by the state Department of Education, they count revenues from the coming year towards debts incurred in the previous fiscal year.

Memo: ***CORRECTION***

by CNB