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 neighboring shopping centers and Tripoli Heights and Rose Hill Sobdivisions.
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 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.Language
English