Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9505010055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Many in the county are suspicious of the Lynchburg Republican's offer to negotiate an end to the threat of annexation hanging over Bedford County's affluent Forest area.
Newman, who's running for the state Senate seat that includes Bedford County, announced this week that he and Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, have asked Lynchburg City Council to draft an agreement that would ban Lynchburg from annexing any part of Bedford County for up to 50 years.
The possibility of losing Forest, which makes up about 30 percent of Bedford County's tax base, has prompted a referendum this fall calling for the consolidation of Bedford and Bedford County into one city.
Unlike the county, a merged city would be protected from annexation by other cities.
"I have no position on the proposed consolidation" of Bedford and Bedford County, Newman said. But if Lynchburg City Council approves his proposal for a 30- to 50-year annexation ban, "I hope then the consolidation referendum will be taken to the good people of Bedford County to make their decision without fear of annexation hanging over them."
Some call Newman's offer political grandstanding and say it isn't enough.
"I think he's an ambitious politician who's trying to add a plank to his political platform that really doesn't work that well," said H.F. Garner, the Forest resident who, with his wife, Anita, started a petition last year that brought about the merger referendum.
"There's really nothing in Newman's offer we see to our advantage," Garner said. "It just postpones the problem. I want to be able to plan 30 years down the road, 50 years down the road, 100 years and forever" without worrying about annexation.
Bedford County Board of Supervisors Chairman Dale Wheeler said, "I see it as a thinly veiled attempt to scuttle the [consolidation] process. ... Let the people vote it up or vote it down."
An agreement banning annexation by Lynchburg for 50 years, Wheeler said, is "inadequate, because we have a border that goes all around our county as well as within, around the city of Bedford."
If Newman can get letters banning annexation by all the other localities around Bedford County, Wheeler said, he'll feel better.
Lynchburg officials say they never had any intention of annexing Forest. "Annexation, of course, is very adversarial," Lynchburg Vice Mayor Bill McRorie said: "The policy of the city of Lynchburg is to promote cooperation, which I think is at the other end of the spectrum from annexation."
Wheeler's not satisfied, though. He said putting the annexation issue off until tomorrow doesn't make it go away. A state moratorium on annexation, which could be extended, is in effect until 1997; even an extension won't make the specter of annexation disappear, he said.
"Every time the possible rape of Bedford County comes up, I'm accused of being anti-regional," Wheeler said. "But I think we have to protect what's ours." He said he thinks the General Assembly needs to re-evaluate the state's annexation laws.
Bedford County Supervisor Gus Saarnijoki said he thinks it's more than a coincidence that Newman announced his planned annexation ban shortly after he announced his candidacy for the state Senate seat that encompasses Bedford County.
But, Saarnijoki said, he's prepared to accept Lynchburg's offer to protect Forest's integrity. "Why not? If we can get a guaranteed no annexation, why not take it? If we can get it before November, you don't have to worry about how the referendum will come out."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB