The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-08-17
W. D. Workmon

and Davidson County, Tennes-
see, decided this summer to
merge their local governments,
they brought the metro bat
ting average up to 500.
Metro" is the name generally
given to the much cuSsed and
discussed pattern of wide-area
government in metropolitan
areas. Actually. a variety OF
specific proposals have been
made in this increasingly i'm
portant area of municipal gov
eminent, but the name metro
seems to have become attached
to almost all of them.
Since 1850, proposals for re-
organizing local government
have been made in 10 Of the
n t ION S ZIP metropolitan
areas. To date, nine Of those
communities have adopted re-
organization plans. The nine 9th
ers either have rejected the
plans, or have failed to obtain
the required ratio Of votes from
the affected areas.
The Nashville Davidson Coun-
ty approval Of metro" reversed
a previous rejection in June of
1883. This time, with provision
for a larger governing council
than had been proposed earlier,
the Metro" plan was favored
both in the city and in the coun-
ty. Approval in both areas was
necessary.
\ Although there are wide diff
ferenceS in the various Metro
plans proposed about the coun-
try. the Nashville Davidson
County reorganization project is
characteristic of a major Met
to- category. Reduced to its
simplest terms, this sort of re-
organization involves consolidat-
ing city government and county
government.
This sort of merger has been
proposed in Virginia Richmond
and HenricO county; North
Carolina Durham and Durham
county,; Georgia Macon and
Blbb county; New Mexico al
buquerque and Bernalillo coun-
ty /; and twice in Tennessee
and Knoxville and Knox county,
Nashville and Davidson countv)
+ Voters rejected each of thee
proposals. except for the second
go-round in Nashville.
4 A similar proposal was APP
proved in Virginia, involving two
adjacent cities Newport News
and Warwick rather than a city
and a county
4 This type of Metro govern
ment. which substitutes a single
governing body where two
existed before, represents the
more drastic type of metropolis
tan reorganization
Less drastic proposals, sug-
gested and for the most part ap-
proved, simply modify the gov
ornamental structure, but with no
real change in governmental
powers of the affected cities
and counties.
Between these two extremes
other proposals are concerned
mostly with adjusting or reap
portloning existing government
tai powers. Probably the best
known plan in this category is
the metropolitan federation
which now entrances the City
OF Miami and the numerous
smaller municipalities of Dade
County, Florida.
The Miami metro" - as we'll
as being one of the most com
pick arrangements of modern
municipal government - also is
one Of the most controversial. 1t
has been challenged in two sep
arate referendums whiting the
last four years, but has with
stood both.
Although the Miami situation
has been the focus of active vot-
er interest, many of the other
metro" plans have either failed
or succeeded without arousing
any great voter interest one way
or another. In only two instances
have voters shown even two
thirds the interest which was re-
Elected in those same communit-
les in presidential elections, &C
cording to the Advisory Com
mission Of Intergovernmental
Relations.
A recently released "informa-