Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHAMBLISSBURG LENGTH: Long
There's a reason Bill and Judy Johnson live in Bedford County.
Sure, their 490-acre wheat farm has been in Bill Johnson's family for generations. But the couple stays in Bedford County for the same reason that hundreds more folks move there each year - because it offers a rural lifestyle.
However, with the possibility of Bedford and Bedford County becoming a city if a merger referendum passes Tuesday, the Johnsons aren't too sure what it would mean to their way of life.
"We just don't want to be thrown to the dogs," Judy Johnson said. "We have been here forever, and the farm has passed down through generations, and we are not interested in subdividing.
"We are self-supporting. We don't ask for a lot of services. We don't want sewer and water and outdoor lights and garbage pickup and that kind of thing. We take care of ourselves, and that's the reason why we live in the country.
"Agriculture doesn't work in the city, no matter what it is. If the entire Bedford County is made a city, you know, there is no place for you."
Even though government officials say consolidating into a city will really be only a name change to protect the county from annexation, the word conjures up a lot of fears in people who came to Bedford County to get away from the urban jungle.
Thais Barnett knows what a big city is like. She was raised in San Francisco. Two years ago, she and her family moved from Idaho to a home near the Peaks of Otter.
"If it had been Roanoke, we would not have moved here," she said. "We bought 10 acres. We hunt on it, we have a stream, we do what we want there. We don't want restrictions. We feel like we are responsible stewards.
"Just in my mind, what I see consolidation doing, and what I think would change, I don't think we would have moved here."
County Administrator Bill Rolfe understands people's hesitation to become part of a traditional city, but he said: "The lines have gotten gray between what is a traditional city and what is a traditional county these days.
"It used to be that counties were predominantly rural areas and cities were predominantly urban areas, but that's not the case anymore." For examples, he points to Fairfax and Arlington, two very urban counties. Or Chesapeake and Suffolk, two cities with large tracts of farmland.
```City' is a buzzword that the [consolidation] opposition is throwing around. They're using it as a threat to draw up images of canyons of steel," said Anita Virgil Garner.
She and her husband, H.F., started the petition that put consolidation on the ballot, because they fear Lynchburg may one day annex their home in Bedford County's Forest area.
It's unfortunate that the word ``city'' has to be used, she said, because it's just a name for a government that will be safe from annexation under Virginia law, unlike a county.
"We can make it a city of concrete," she said. "But we can also make it a city of farms ... we get to design it. That's the beauty of it."
The Garners moved to Bedford County from the congested suburbs of New Jersey. Now they live in a quiet English Tudor-style house with parklike landscaping. The interior of their home resembles an art studio. Anita Garner, an internationally known haiku poet, weaves rugs. H.F., a retired geologist, paints 19th century ships and geologic abstracts of rocks and fossils.
"Does this look like we want to live in a city?" she asked.
But the opposition is hitting people where they live. Literally.
John Boardman, chairman of Sam Moore Furniture in Bedford, is leading the move to stop consolidation. If it passes, he says, lots of Bedford County communities may lose their rural identities. Or at least their postmarks.
In some other cities that have consolidated, the U.S. Post Office discontinued rural post office names such as Goode or Montvale in favor of the new city name - in this case, "Bedford." That doesn't mean community names will be taken off highway signs and maps, but it may be enough to make the history-conscious think twice about consolidation.
However, "if we don't vote for consolidation, roughly 25 percent of those names will end up in Lynchburg or Vinton by annexation," said H.F. Garner.
Consolidation supporters say the merger will be good for industry and residential growth. And the Garners say the thought of introducing higher wages into Bedford's "captive labor market" may be why businessmen like Boardman are so quick to criticize the merger.
But Boardman said he's an ardent supporter of new industry. He just doesn't think consolidation is the answer.
"I know what it takes to attract business - good schools." Boardman, a member of the city School Board, said the Bedford area's merged school system is a living example of how consolidation doesn't work.
Standardized testing scores in the city are lower than anywhere in the county, he said, and school spending in the city doesn't come close to what's being spent on schools in Forest.
In a merged Bedford County, Boardman sees more of the same. As Forest's population grows and it gains more clout, he said, "the whole city could be dominated by Forest, and that's certainly not in the interest of the rural landowners or the members of the present Bedford city."
The residents of the city and county seem to be of mixed opinions as to what effect consolidation will have on their everyday lives.
"I don't have too much concern, because I don't feel it's doing more than changing the name," said Harry Wright, a retired paper-mill clerk from Bedford. "I don't see the county changing as far as farmland, because Bedford has quite a bit of farmland, and I don't feel that [consolidation] will really change that."
Bedford County is the fastest-growing locality west of Interstate 95, and some see no stopping of development, consolidation or not.
Bedford teacher Nancy Henry sees her classes increasing in size every year.
With or without consolidation, she said, "It's going to be a big population increase. The people that come in have to have homes, they have to have places to buy things. I mean, we may get these gigantic malls, who knows?
"We have been here 14 years and we have seen a lot of difference in 14 years."
This is part of a joint reporting project between The Roanoke Times and the weekly newspaper in Bedford, The Bedford Bulletin. For Bedford residents who want more information on the proposed merger plan, see today's Bedford Bulletin.
by CNB