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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 27, 1995                   TAG: 9505300053
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Medium

FORMER DUBLIN COUNCILMAN TO TRY FOR SUPERVISOR'S CHAIR

Former Dublin Town Councilman Colbern Linkous is taking aim at the seat on the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors now held by Dr. Bruce Fariss, an official with whom he has disagreed off and on for years.

Linkous is the only independent candidate so far in the race.

In his campaign for the Ingles District seat, Linkous said he will accuse Fariss of having a hidden agenda to revive the consolidation issue. Linkous is basing his charge on the fact that Fariss has asked county administrators to study why a referendum on consolidating Pulaski County and the towns of Dublin and Pulaski failed in 1983. "Why does he want a study of it unless he's considering bringing the issue back up?" Linkous asked.

Linkous, who lost a bid for a second Dublin council term last year and has addressed the Board of Supervisors during the public comment portion of the meeting again and again, has been a Dublin-first advocate on many issues.

He opposes the joint recreation program of the three governments because, he says, it favors the county over the towns. While on the Dublin Town Council, he helped shoot down an idea for dropping Dublin's Police Department and relying on county law enforcement.

Linkous also expressed concern about the possibility of further consolidating county schools.

He said the joint county-town agreement under which Dublin annexed its industrial park with enough acreage to connect it physically to the town amounted to a token from the county, to head off any possible Dublin effort for further annexation along Virginia 100.

"They were hoping, with that little bit of land, that we wouldn't look at that 100 corridor out there," he said.

Linkous said he believes many subdivisions outside town would be happy to be annexed if the town would pledge to plow back revenue realized from annexation into such services as sewer lines to replace failing septic systems.

If he was on the county board, he said, he would favor annexation only under that condition.

The first time Fariss ran for office, Linkous campaigned for him. "I figured it was time for a change," Linkous said. "And right now, I think it's time for a change again. I know it's an uphill fight when you're up against an incumbent ... but I have confidence that I can do a better job.

"I was really only looking for a soapbox, so to speak, when this Fariss thing first started. But when I started getting out there with my signatures and my requirements, I saw a lot of possibilities beyond that," he said.

Linkous is retired from Lynchburg Foundry in Radford, where he had worked for 14 years.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB