ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020044
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
A YEAR ago, the proposed merger of three local marketing and service organizations with similar missions in Rocky Mount, the heart of Franklin County, looked like a done deal.
Members of the three groups - the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, the Franklin County Retail Merchants Association and the Community Partnership for Revitalization - agreed on the wisdom of joining forces. Among the cited advantages: end of overlap and duplication of effort, concentration of resources for greater effectiveness and, as Rocky Mount Town Manager Mark Henne said, a clear message to outsiders seeking to do business in the town ``that we're a community that has everything together.''
Alas, the marriage may have to be called off. Says Carthan Currin, a member of the consolidation task force: ``Unfortunately, local politics have gotten in the way.'' So what else is new?
Like true love, the course of cooperation, not to mention consolidation, seldom runs smooth in Virginia. Shared interests are sacrificed on the altars of ego and special agendas. Perhaps, though, there's still hope for this merger.
In the beginning, at least, the Rocky Mount principals agreed to agree. That's a spark that numerous other organizations elsewhere in this region, also in a position to gain from cooperative arrangements, have yet to ignite.
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