Transcription
Town's Bid
To Annex
Faces Stall
By Staff Reporter
DUMFRIES - Town Attorney
J. Carl Hill says he thinks that
the Dumfries annexation suit may
have been "knocked in the head"
by a technicality which postponed
it this week.
But there is a legal loophole that
could partly save the annexation
move, he adds.
The technicality will block the
suit from being renewed before
next Friday, when a two - year
moratorium on annexation suits
goes into effect in Virginia.
The only exception to the new
law, voted by the 1962 General
Assembly, allows a suit to be filed
if all parties consent to it, he said.
In Dumfries' case, that would
mean specifically the Prince William
Board of Supervisors, since
the Dumfries Town Council is on
record as consenting to the petition
of annexation filed by residents
in the outlying Dumfries
area.
A consent agreement was almost
reached with the supervisors this
spring, he recalled. on a proposal
to save trial costs through a one-
judge court instead of the usual
three-judge panel.
Dumfries District Supervisor Dr.
A. J. Ferlazzo said he thought the
county board may go along with
a consent agreement, if the annexation
request is trimmed to a
more limited area than the 11
square miles sought in the present
suit.
He said he personally favored
annexation of the immediate confines,
includes two shopping centers and Tripoli
Heights and Rose Hill subdivisions.
A proposed "widespread annexation"
north to Powells Creek
dashed chances or a consent from
the supervisors last spring, he
said.
The attorney for the petitioners,
F. Caldwell Bagley, indicated
earlier that he may schedule new
advertisements of the suit to overcome
the technicality by sometime
next month.
Earlier advertisements were ruled
invalid by the circuit court
because they appeared in a weekly
newspaper here that is not certified
as a second-class newspaper.
The ruling by Judge A. W. Sinclair
halted a request by Bagley
to have a three-judge panel appointed
to sit on the annexation
case.Transcriber
Adam KitchenLanguage
English