ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040039
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
WELL, IT'S another new year in the Roanoke Valley, and some things haven't changed.
Pay attention, now. This gets complicated:
Roanoke County supervisors have proposed a charter amendment to make the county more annexation-proof.
This, after the town of Vinton had started exploratory consideration of possible annexation, and after the county protested (and helped kill) a proposal that, had the state enacted it, might have allowed the city of Roanoke to merge with Roanoke County - by becoming like a town.
Towns, you see, aren't covered by a state moratorium on city annexations of county territory. And counties don't feel as threatened by towns, because a county can continue to collect property taxes from town residents. As for cities, they can't be annexed in any case.
Helpfully commenting on this situation, Roanoke city Mayor David Bowers observed that the county seems to want to be like a city. "Why couldn't there be a Roanoke County City?" he mused. "The city could then become Roanoke City County."
Whereupon Bob Johnson, new chairman of Roanoke County's Board of Supervisors, took up the joke and said: "Fine, then;" let's have the county attorney look into the possibility of Roanoke County becoming a city.
Whereupon long-suffering Roanoke Valley residents ought to rise up as one and propose to their elected representatives a better idea:
Call the whole thing off.
This kind of territorial tit for tat re-
mains a distraction from pressing concerns, a disgrace to local government and a disservice to valley taxpayers.
It's nice that the municipal staffs talk from time to time about cooperating in the delivery of various services that would benefit from regional planning and combined efficiencies. And there already are, to be sure, some success stories in shared endeavors: waste disposal and industrial recruitment among them. Nevertheless, the movement toward cooperation continues to lag because it lacks sufficient encouragement and leadership.
Sufficient encouragement requires political rewards and punishment from voters making their wishes known. It also requires belated discovery in the General Assembly that Virginia's system of local governments is contributing to all this gamesmanship - that the system is unique among the states for a reason, and needs to be overhauled.
Sufficient leadership, in turn, requires a sustained effort among local elected officials to put aside petty putdowns and tiresome turf games, and work together for the region's good.
The screwed-up independent-city arrangement, aggravated by rivalries among politicians who can't get a region's act together, may provide endless fodder for amusement. But every year the cost of missed opportunities grows bigger, and the joke, older.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB