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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994                   TAG: 9402050093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

NAMES DISQUALIFIED FROM PETITION DELAY BEDFORD MERGER TRY

Organizers of a petition drive supporting consolidation of Bedford and Bedford County received a minor setback Friday as it was discovered that too many signatures that had been collected were unverifiable.

According to Bedford County Registrar Marie Batten, the petition requires 3,450 signatures - 15 percent of the county's registered voters. More than 3,600 signatures were turned in, but 261 names were disqualified.

However, across the street at City Hall, the Bedford petition reached the benchmark it needed with no problems, said Bedford Registrar Nancy Bower.

This situation has created a tangle of legal questions, said Bedford County Administrator Bill Rolfe. He has asked County Attorney Johnny Overstreet to consult with the attorney general on three points:

Once the petitions are submitted, can organizers collect more signatures if they come up short?

If organizers can collect additional signatures, how much time do they have to obtain the required number?

Do the petitions themselves need to be certified by the clerk of court before any signatures are collected?

H.F. and Anita Garner of Forest have spearheaded the petition drive and said they do not think this setback will derail the consolidation effort. "We'll have the rest of the signatures in no time," H.F. Garner said. "We'll probably get 300 or 350."

Garner said he can gather as many as 60 signatures a day, but he is waiting for some warmer weather.

Last November, the Garners began the petition drive to consolidate the two municipalities based on their fear that Lynchburg might annex the affluent Forest area that borders the city.

A city cannot annex parts of another city under a state moratorium, which expires in 1995.

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB