ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 5, 1997 TAG: 9703050052
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
State Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, got all but three of his bills through the General Assembly this year. Most other legislators representing parts of the New River Valley had a 50 percent or better success rate, except for Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, who saw a third of his adopted.
One of Trumbo's bills authorizes regional industrial authorities that can own and operate industrial parks, allowing localities from Planning Districts 3 and 4 to join in such ventures. The bill is designed to lay the legal groundwork for a major new regional industrial park planned for Pulaski County.
Other successful bills introduced by Trumbo, who represents Radford and part of Pulaski County, include:
* Expanding the process by which clerks record documents to allow imaging processes and methods of search and retrieval;
* Allowing papers from pre-1988 civil court appeals to be destroyed, as well as felony cases after 10 years if they were dismissed;
* Permitting off-premises sale of alcoholic beverages in closed containers by breweries;
* Repealing the Motor Vehicle Emissions Reduction Program;
* Designating part of Interstate 64 as Douthat State Parkway;
* Designating part of Virginia 629 between Interstate 64 and Virginia 39 as a Virginia Byway;
* Commending Marine Staff Sgt. Frankie Lee Hall for saving a man in a burning car after it wrecked on Interstate 581 in Roanoke Sept. 4;
* Honoring longtime civic leader and former Pulaski Town Council member Alma Holston, who died Dec. 29.
Griffith, who represents part of Montgomery County, had bills passed including:
* Making the maiming of someone by a drunken driver a felony;
* Exempting the Lewis-Gale Foundation from sales taxes on tangible personal property buys from mid-1997 to mid-1998 (his earlier attempt died in a committee, but this was incorporated into another bill which passed);
* Exempting the Hanging Rock Battlefield & Railway Presidential Foundation from property taxes;
* Requiring parents behind in child support payments to agree to catch up within 15 years to avoid losing their driver's license;
* Funding for the maintenance of Confederate grave sites in Lexington and Salem;
* Creating an organ Donor Awareness Day;
* Commending the state championship Salem High School football team;
* Commending Roanoke Valley Circuit Judge G.O. Clemens who retired last year after 17 years on the bench.
Del. Tommy Baker, R-Pulaski County, got the following bills passed:
* A sales tax exemption for the Radford Clothing Bank, incorporating it in another bill after an earlier version failed;
* Loosening restrictions on Radford City Council members holding other offices, to allow exceptions permitted by general law;
* Allowing local prisoners to work voluntarily on local public service projects;
* Requiring the sheriff member on a regional jail board to be appointed by other sheriffs in the service area, rather than by the board itself;
* Extending the time for hospital sprinkler systems if construction is under way for new facilities to house those in nonsprinkler facilities;
* Correcting the Internal Revenue Code to allow an existing sales and use tax exemption for Ruritan Clubs;
* Seeking reviews of current reports on availability of perinatal care in Virginia and developing a plan to improve access for under-served areas;
*Directing the Joint Commission on Health Care to study and recommend ways for employees to participate in point-of-service health plans.
State Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, saw more than half of his bills passed, including:
* Giving a state employment preference to veterans, effective in mid-1998;
* A property-tax exemption for the Izaak Walton League in Montgomery County;
* Limiting the Air Control Board's authority to require vapor recovery equipment to ozone problem areas;
* Develop a water quality certification for laboratories making tests to enforce air, water and waste laws;
* Creating a cooperative technical program among several agencies to address water pollution problems;
* Require annual railroad reports on actions likely to affect the amounts of coal dust blown from moving trains;
* Examine the integrity of revenues coming to the state Literary Fund;
* Study issues related to maintaining private cemeteries.
Del. James Shuler, D-Blacksburg, got six out of his 10 bills through:
* Repealing a so-called "lag pay" provision which would have delayed payments to state employees;
* A property tax exemption for Montgomery County Community Shelter;
* Allowing circuit courts to appoint up to three alternates to town zoning appeal boards;
* Permitting mortgage brokers and lenders to obtain collateral security interests in mobile or manufactured homes placed on real estate;
* Requiring health maintenance organizations to inform enrollees of their methods for resolving complaints, and the enrollee's appeal rights;
* Allowing graduate students and their dependents to buy health insurance coverage in the state's health plan.
Among the bills from local legislators that didn't pass:
* A Trumbo bill to exempt the New River Valley Regional Jail Authority from new state requirements when building facilities under a fixed-price construction management concept.
* A Griffith measure to keep the state Department of Social Services from collecting child support costs until the person designated to receive such payments is completely paid;
* Another Griffith bill to allow civil actions against people who sell alcoholic beverages to a minor who has caused injury or death while drunk;
* A Baker bill designating 35.5 miles of Big Walker Creek in Giles County as a state scenic river;
*Another Baker measure making it a felony for a habitual offender to drive while intoxicated;
* A Marye bill establishing an income tax checkoff for a political campaign finance fund;
* A Marye bill increasing the tax on packs of cigarettes from its current 2.5 cents gradually, between now and the year 2000, to 12.5 cents;
* A Marye bill increasing the gas tax by 5 cents per gallon;
* A Shuler bill banning ammunition feeding devices which handle more than 10 rounds, if made since the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994;
* A Shuler proposal to schedule a referendum on a constitutional amendment to increase delegate terms from two years to four years.
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Trumbo, Baker, Griffith, Shuler.by CNB