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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990                   TAG: 9003032639
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

SMOKING AT IMPASSE

Hopes for quick resolution to a deadlock over public smoking restrictions were dashed Friday as the two legislators with competing no-smoking bills refused to yield on a few remaining differences.

Sen. Thomas Michie, D-Charlottesville, and Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, took turns blaming each other for the impasse during a House committee meeting.

The exchange grew particularly tense when Cranwell made a motion to kill Michie's no-smoking bill.

Michie, a champion of anti-smoking advocates, replied: "I've worked on this bill for three years, and I'd prefer to have my bill pass in some form."

Cranwell later relented, agreeing to let a six-member House-Senate conference committee try to work out the differences.

Cranwell and Michie have agreed on several key points, including statewide smoking regulations for restaurants and public buildings and a limit on local restrictions.

But they remained deadlocked on no-smoking sections in large retail stores and a possible enforcement role for the state Health Department.

In other legislature action:

More than two dozen Franklin County residents showed up at a Senate committee meeting to fight attempts to resurrect a controversial mixed-drink proposal.

The bill allowing mixed-drink sales at Smith Mountain Lake - despite a 1988 referendum in which Franklin County voters rejected liquor by the drink - was killed by the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee last month.

But opponents of the bill believed that Smith Mountain Lake developers would make a last-minute effort to revive it.

"The people of Franklin County are concerned about what is going on here," said Claude Heard, one of those who made the six-hour round trip. "They do not want to have their voting rights taken away."

The bill did not come up Friday, sealing its fate for the 1990 General Assembly session.

The House of Delegates is scheduled Monday to give final approval to a charter for the new government that would result from the merger of Roanoke and Roanoke County.

Residents of the two localities are expected to vote on the merger proposal in November.

The Senate approved the new charter without debate on Thursday. The proposal now goes back to the House of Delegates for routine approval of technical amendments enacted by the Senate.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY

by CNB