ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 12, 1997 TAG: 9701130010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
More citizen power focus of effort
WYTHEVILLE - Had it up to your keister with new laws?
The Fightin' Ninth contingent of the Virginia Independent/Reform Party last weekend met to push a legislative goal for more citizen-based powers to change laws and recall legislators.
One of the group's proposed bills would allow citizens to reject or alter laws passed by the General Assembly and signed by the governor. Another would allow voters to recall elected officials from office. Both would require amendments to the Virginia Constitution.
Party members are not the only ones who want General Assembly approval of "Initiative Reform and Recall" legislation. A Republican legislator, Del. Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, is seeking passage of a House bill during the 1997 session to accomplish the same thing.
Cox is pushing House Bill 170 for Initiative Reform and Recall measures in Virginia. Rocky Wilkinson, campaign manager for Blacksburg engineer Tom Roberts' unsuccessful run for the district's congressional seat last year, is leading the party's district effort for a slightly different version of the concept, requiring two referendums instead of one to change a law.
Common Cause has been pushing for the idea for 18 years, but the proposal remains locked up in the House Rules Committee.
Between 20 and 30 states have some form of this initiative, depending on how it is defined. "In some, they have it for just an increase in taxation," said Mary Clare Wohlford of Wytheville, a member of the party's Central Committee. "This on a national level might take care of a lot of the ills that are bogging us down right now. ... It gives the people the power."
Virginia already has ways to remove legislators, she said. "You could always not re-elect them, but a lot of people don't get excited about that, as we saw in the last election."
Arizona and California have used the citizen legislation process to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes in certain instances, Wohlford said. "I think we've got a big educational process to go through," she said.
Air Force quintet to play in Pulaski
PULASKI - The U.S. Air Force Heritage of America Tradewinds Quintet will span more than 250 years of musical tradition at its performance at the New River Valley Fine Arts Center Annex at 7 p.m. Jan. 25.
There is no charge, but reservations should be made by calling 980-7363 because of limited seating.
The group's repertoire includes chamber works, popular and patriotic pieces. The quintet, comprising flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, is part of a 60-member Air Force band.
Its performers have studied with members of such orchestras as the Chicago and San Francisco symphonies, and attended some of the country's leading music schools, said Master Sgt. James Husak, its leader.
Durham's former site sold to N.C. group
WYTHEVILLE - The former Durham's Restaurant building at Main and 11th streets has been sold to a Wilmington, N.C., development corporation.
No immediate occupant for the building has been announced. The corporation, Zimmer Commercial Properties, has placed Rite Aid drug stores in several other Virginia locations where it has acquired buildings.
"They're very nice people to have coming into the community," said Chimer Durham who, with his brother, Bill Durham, had been running the restaurant.
"One more month, we'd have been in business for 50 years," said Chimer Durham. "But it was a good business decision to sell."
The restaurant had been located near the center of town in a building that was the birthplace of Edith Bolling, second wife of President Woodrow Wilson. When her husband was ill, she acted as his messenger with Cabinet members and, according to some biographers, often made presidential decisions on her own.
The Durham family later moved the restaurant to its existing building in 1978.
Wythe supervisors change chairman vote
WYTHEVILLE - An initiative by former Wythe County Supervisor John Davis to take politics out of choosing board officials has ended after two years.
Davis' idea, when he was on the board at the start of 1995, was to rotate the chairmanship by district. That was done in 1995 and 1996.
But at the board's first meeting of 1997 last week, Supervisor Harvey Atkinson moved that the rules be changed, going back to when the chairman was elected by a majority of the board.
Supervisor Tom DuPuis asked whether that would not make the election a political situation again.
"I would hope that it's not a political situation but, if that's what it comes to, yes," Atkinson said. His motion was approved 4-3.
The 4-3 vote approving the change was not along party lines. Democrats Atkinson, Bucky Sharitz and Giles Rose favored the motion, but so did outgoing chairman Charles Dix, a Republican. Voting "no" were Republicans Tom DuPuis and Mark Munsey, and Democrat Clay Lawrence.
Atkinson nominated Sharitz as chairman. Lawrence nominated Munsey, who declined saying he did not want to be involved in a "dogfight." Munsey moved that Sharitz be elected by acclamation. Munsey was chosen vice chairman 4-3, after he and Dix were nominated.
The board also decided to hold five meetings a year away from the board's meeting room in Wytheville at these locations: Fort Chiswell High School in February; Speedwell Elementary in April; Austinville Elementary in June; Rural Retreat High in August; and Sheffey Elementary in October.
The board agreed to pay $10,000 to each of the two owners of a proposed industrial park to extend the county's option on the property for another year. A federal agency has approved paying $53,000 of a $55,000 engineering study for the site.
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