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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 10, 1994                   TAG: 9402100094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RURAL RETREAT                                LENGTH: Short

SALE OF CEMETERY NOT SET IN STONE

Family members of people buried in Sunset Memory Gardens and those who have paid for space there are waiting to learn the cemetery's fate.

Wythe County Attorney Willard Lester has recommended that the cemetery be offered for sale at public auction in order to collect more than $20,000 in delinquent taxes and penalties from the past nine years.

But the county Board of Supervisors took no action on the recommendation Tuesday. Lester is resigning as county attorney Feb. 28 because of other business interests, so the board decided to wait until his successor, Frank Slavin, can look at the matter.

Slavin is the attorney of record for Don Magallenes, who bought the cemetery with his wife in 1981. Magallenes served several months in jail after being convicted of failure to complete purchased cemetery mausoleums on time.

by CNB