Halifax Del. W.W. "Ted" Bennett said yesterday that he plans to seek re-election to the Virginia House of Delegates, if current re-districting makes his candidacy a viable one.
"I've had right many calls over the past several weeks from folks wanting me to tell them that I am," said Bennett.
According to Bennett, he will issue a newsletter this week saying that he looks forward to serving in the House in the future.
But Bennett's main concern is the present.
On Tuesday, the Virginia Senate Finance Committee refused to send up legislation co-sponsored by Bennett to securitize approximately half of Virginia's long-term share of the national tobacco settlement.
"The big question that they pretended to be concerned about was what would happen if they passed my bill and it went to the Governor's desk," said Bennett.
"Would he amend it to go back to where it was with full 100 percent [securization], which is what neither the House or Senate wants?"
According to Bennett, the way Gilmore had local moneys treated in his 100 percent secutitization was "not good for us."
Bennett suggested instead to House Republicans that Gilmore, as is his perrogative, send down a bill with "just our 50 percent," but have the bill drafted the way his was originally.
"So apparantly, they're going to do that," said Bennett, adding he believes the Governor will send a bill down this week.
Bennett already has ideas for two possible uses of settlement money, as he puts it, a "Marshall Plan," for Southside communities.
Settlement money, according to Bennett, could be used to facilitate greater fiber optic capability throughout the region, particularly in the East-West corridor along Highway 58.
The second use involves a bill passed by both the Virginia House and Senate last year.
That bill will use settlement money to help defray the cost of tax credits to bio-tech companies and information tech companies, against the Virginia Corporate Income Tax if they would locate in tobacco communities.
"You can't plan and aim for these larger regional things as you could with a large pot of money up front," said Bennett, again stating his belief in the larger up-front payments his bill would have provided.

The state's Burning Law banning outdoor fires before 4 p.m. is in effect.
The ban continues through April 30 and follows an extremely dry January in Halifax County.
"The driest January I remember in 26 years," observed Chief Forest Warden Alex Williamson.
There have been 14 fires in the county this year, according to Williamson, with debris burning blamed for 8, cigarettes for two, ashes for two and one each for equipment and welding.
The fires involved 49 acres of open land and about 14 acres of woods, and those were just the serious fires reported to Forestry, one official explained.
Burning Law
In brief, the law forbids burning before 4 p.m., if the fire is within 300 feet of woodland, brushland or fields containing dry grass or other flammable material.
The law's provisions include the following:
· A fire must be attended at all times if within 150 feet of woodland or grass or brushland leading into woodland.
· No fuel may be added or fire rekindled after midnight.
· The law applies to camp fires, warming fires, brush piles, household trash, stumps, fields of broomstraw and brush, or anything capable of spreading fire.
The leading cause of forest fires in Virginia continues to be debris burning, according to the state Forestry Department.
Because forest fuels have cured during the winter months, the fire danger is higher in early spring than in summer when the forest and grasses are green with new growth, explained forestry officials.
The Burning Law is considered one of the most effective tools in the prevention of forest fire.
"Please help the Virginia Department of Forestry prevent forest fires by obeying the forest fire laws, and by remembering that the 4 p.m. Burning Law is in effect from February 15 through April 30," said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Barry DuVal.
For additional information, contact the local Va. Dept. of Forestry at 476-6372. Additional information on forestry laws and fire situation report may also be found on the Department's web site at www.dof.state.va.us.

Halifax Town Council will hold a public hearing on several additions and changes to its Zoning Ordinance during its Tuesday night session.
The hearing will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Halifax Town Hall at 70 Main Street.
Since the town does not have an agriculture classification , but areas with agricultural characteristics were taken into the town's boundary during its recent expansion, an amended definition of agriculture will be proposed. The definition will read, the cultivation of soil for the purpose of raising crops, horticulture and forestry to include harvesting.
"In other words, people are grandfathering in those agricultural uses in the R-1 zoning," explained Town Manager Robert Greene, naming pastures and pine stands, among others.
A proposal to amend under Article I Definition, Section 1-16 Denisity, to include RI-A classification is on the Tuesday agenda.
There is also a proposal to add a new classification, R-1A. This additional classification will include under use, single family manufactured homes with brick and mortar underpinning.
During its regular session, council also is expected to hear a VDOT report on the town's request for a Walk/Don't Walk Light, with a pedestrian button modification, at the Mountain Road/Main Street intersection.
Greene was notified by Joe Barkley II, VDOT resident engineer, last week that a 12-hour pedestrian count on Feb. 6 recorded a total of 40 pedestrians crossing Route 501 at the intersection, and a total of 30 crossing the Route 360 leg during the count period.
The record also showed that 152 pedestrians crossed Route 501 at the next crosswalk south of the intersection during the same period.
"It was noted in the review that it would not be anticipated that these 152 pedestrians would walk to the extra distance to utilize a pedestrian signal," Barkley wrote Greene. "Past experience has shown that pedestrians normally cross at the closest point to them irregardless of what provisions are made.
"These pedestrian counts are not sufficient to justify a separate pedestrian phase in the traffic signal; however, the department is willing to install the pedestrian push-button that will enable the pedestrians to change the traffic signal in their favor."
The modification is estimated to cost $2,500 and can be done without disturbance to the existing facilities, according to the resident engineer.
The Walk/Don't Walk pedestrian lights are estimated to cost $25,000, provided new conduit is not required. If a new conduit is required, the cost could increase by another $10,000, according to Barkley.
"The Department does not feel this location justifies the expenditure of this $25,000 to $35,000 cost," wrote the resident engineer.
Council also will hear an update on street lights to be added within the town's boundaries, as well as an Emergency 911 consolidation update.

Search warrants led to the arrest of five individuals Friday from two South Boston residences by the Halifax/South Boston Regional Narcotic Enforcement Task Force.
The Task Force executed one search warrant at the residence of Inez Ferrell, 38, of East Forest Trail where a quantity of powder and crack cocaine were seized, according to Major R. S. B. Pulliam, chief deputy and Task Force coordinator.
Ferrell was arrested at the scene for posession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute.
Also arrested at the scene for possession of cocaine were Connell Ferrell, 33, and William Tucker, 41, who were both residents of the East Forest Trail home.
The Task Force also seized materials necessary to cook powder cocaine and crack cocaine, packaging and distribution materials, cooking devices, and numerous crack smoking devices and materials, Pulliam said.
Non-cash proceeds and possible stolen items were also seized at the scene, the major said.
Another search warrant at the residence of Bernard Allen Womack, 58, of Williams Street, led to the arrest of Womack for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine over a multi-year period.
Deborah Clay Wilmouth, 39, of Edmunds Street in South Boston was also arrested for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine over a multi-year period.
Crack cocaine distribution materials and a quantity of cash proceeds were seized at the Womack residence, according to Pulliam.
Pulliam said the search warrant at the Womack residence was the result of a multi-year investigation in to a crack cocaine conspiracy that over the past two years had been responsible for the distribution of crack cocaine on a daily basis that added up to kilos during this period.
The case with Womack and Wilmouth is being considered for federal prosecution, Pulliam said.
Inez Ferrell is incarcerated at the Halifax Adult Detention Center under a $50,000 secured bond.
Connell Ferrell and Tucker are incarcerated at the Detention Center under $10,000 secured bonds.
And Womack and Wilmouth are being held at the center under no bond, Pulliam said.
· Joe Cecil Coles, 36, of East Hyco Road in South Boston, was arrested Saturday by sheriff's deputies on felony charges of forgery and uttering after an indictment by the grand jury of the circuit court.
Coles was charged with forging the signature of Lynette S. Mills on a $60 check drawn on Crestar Bank and made payable to Coles, and uttering the check on November 9, 2000.
A petit larceny charge of stealing U. S. currency valued less than $200 and belonging to Mills was also made against Cole.
· A 28-year-old Scottsburg man was arrested Friday by sheriff's deputies on a misdemeanor count of assault and battery.
Timothy Dean Martin, 28, of Dryburg Road, was charged for the assault and battery of April L. Snead on February 4.
Martin is scheduled to appear in Halifax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on February 21.
In traffic reports,

· A reckless-driving charge was made Wednesday morning after a single-vehicle accident that occurred at the intersection of Cody Road and Route 649.
Trooper S. L. Noblin said the 9 a.m. accident involved a 1999 Chevrolet, driven by Gregory Chester Barnes, 52, of South Boston, who was injured along with a passenger, Lavonne Bristow, 17, after the vehicle struck a ditch.
Noblin said the vehicle ran off of the right side of the road and the driver lost control.
The vehicle ran off of the left side of the road and the driver overcorrected and ran off of the right side of the road again before striking the ditch, Noblin said.
Barnes and Bristow were taken to Halifax Regional Hospital where they were treated and released, according to a hospital spokesperson.
The trooper estimated $500 in damages to the vehicle.
· Trooper Noblin made another charge of reckless driving Friday afternoon after a two-vehicle crash on Buffalo Road, three miles north of Route 40.
Noblin said the 12:30 p.m. accident involved a 1996 Chevrolet, driven by Katrice Elizabeth Marshall, 18, of Gladys, who lost control of the vehicle while in a curve and struck the side of a 1985 Chevrolet, driven by Gloria Jean Monroe, 52, of Long Island.
A passenger in the Monroe vehicle, Tiffany Rochelle Monroe, 17, was injured and taken to Halifax Regional Hospital where she was treated and released, according to a hospital spokesperson.
Noblin estimated $4,500 in damages to the Marshall vehicle and $1,200 in damages to the Monroe vehicle.
Marshall was charged with reckless driving.
· A single-vehicle accident resulted in a reckless-driving charge Friday evening after a 1989 Ford, driven by Donald Angel, 35, of Halifax, ran off of the left side of Volens Road near Slick Rock Road (Route 748) and overturned.
Trooper D. O. Cooper II said Angel was injured from the 7 p.m. accident, however, Angel did not receive treatment from the Halifax Regional Hospital, according to a hospital spokesperson.
Trooper Cooper estimated $800 in damages to the vehicle.
· A sixteen-year-old Scottsburg youth was charged with disregarding a stoplight after a two-vehicle accident Saturday afternoon in Riverdale.
Trooper D. J. Cline said the 3 p.m. accident occurred at the intersection of routes 501 and 58 and involved a 1993 Ford hatchback, driven by the youth, who came through a stoplight and was struck by a 1996 Ford hatchback, driven by Andrew P. Horne, 65, of Vernon Hill.
Trooper Cline estimated $2,000 in damages to the youth's vehicle and $500 in damages to the Horne vehicle.

Haliscope 2000 captured a first-place rating from theVirginia High School League.
The VHSL judge praised the yearbook's theme concept, "On the Edge," describing the writing as on a superior level, the leads good, and quotes enhancing the stories."
"I am delighted with the comments the judge made about the writing the staff did," said Linda Mercer, Haliscope advisor. "It is a skill that they will use the rest of their lives."
Further comments by the VHSL judge stated that the "2000 Haliscope has an attractive cover and a great theme idea; the book is well organized around it."
"We tried to cover all areas of school when we planned content," said Yearbook staff member Jennifer Roller.
Agreeing with Roller, the judge said, "The book contains superior coverage of student life, academics, people and sports."
"Great job!" was the comment.
The sports design was developed by Robbie Compton and Latashia Womack did the theme design.
Students explored a number of options before settling on the presentation of headlines and the sports scoreboards.
In his overview, the VHSL judge praised the work of the Haliscope staff in writing, theme concept and design, reports and student life coverage and captions.

By Joe Chandler
GW interim basketball coach Robert Doggett calls senior Justin Harris the team's garbage man.
"Justin is our 'Fred Sanford,'" Doggett said.
"He's our garbage man. He cleans up everybody's mess."
Scoring off of acrobatic lobs and soaring tip-ins of offensive rebounds, Harris scored 33 points and snared 10 rebounds as he and GW cleaned house on Halifax County 85-62 here Friday night in front of a packed house estimated at 3,000 fans.
The win by GW, coupled with E.C. Glass' upset win over Albemarle, gave GW its seventh straight Western District regular season basketball title and an automatic berth in the Northwest Region Tournament.
Halifax County, which finished 10-10 overall and gave third-year head coach Garrett Dillard his best record since taking the reigns of the Comets, finished third in the Western District with a 2-4 district mark.
The Comets will journey to Charlottesville Wednesday night to face Albemarle in one of the semifinal games of the Western District Tournament. GW will host E.C. Glass in the other tournament semifinal game.
The winners from Wednesday's games will face each other Friday night in the Western District Tournament title game.
While the district tournament pairings and the fact that Halifax County completed its first season of .500 basketball in three years were notable items, the number Harris and GW did on the Comets were the primary topics of conversation.
"He's explosive from the floor," Dillard said of Harris after the loss on Senior Night in his team's final game of the regular season.
"When the ball goes up, he's after it. He's a tough guy to play. He does so many different things and he does them well."
Dillard was gracious in his praise of Harris.
But he took his team to task for having allowed Harris to score untouched on four high lobs from the wing by teammate Dalrich Beard with nobody rotating off of GW's high screens to fend off the back-door play.
"I'm sick to my stomach of seeing that upscreen," Dillard said.
"We knew it. We worked on it. We told the guys what was going to happen. Yet and still, it happened. You don't let somebody do something like that to you three or four times in a row without fouling him or making him get an offensive foul or something. You don't just let the same thing keep happening over and over."
Harris, with his team leading 21-17, opened the second quarter by slamming home a high lob pass from Beard.
Seconds later, he stole the ball and threw it over to standout guard Antonio Fitzgerald who laid it up to score his ninth point of the game.
Then, Harris scored again off of another back-door lob from Beard to put the Eagles up 27-17 with 6:24 left in the half.
Halifax County fought back with a basket from Dante Ballou, who finished the night with 11 points and a free throw from reserve Andrew Witko to cut the GW lead to seven points with 4:06 left in the first half.
While the Comets went dry for about two and a half minutes, GW extended its lead to 36-22 and polished off the half holding a 13-point edge at 40-27.
GW opened the second half with Beard hitting Harris with back-to-back lobs for easy layups which triggered a 14-2 run that gave GW a 54-31 lead with 3:57 left to play in the third period.
That run essentially put the game away although Halifax County tried to stay in contention.
Halifax County ended the GW run with a three-pointer from Dashawn Baird and followed it with a basket from Carleton Roach to make the score 54-36 with 2:31 left in the third quarter.
GW finished the quarter by outscoring the Comets 8-4 and holding a 62-40 lead.
The Comets fell behind by 24 points at the outset of the fourth quarter but an 8-0 run on two baskets from Roach who finished the night with 16 points, a basket from Baird and layup by reserve Anthony Owen who finished the night with nine points, cut the GW lead to 16 points.
"I felt we still had a chance," Dillard said.
"We tried to make a comeback. We cut it (the lead) from 24 points to 16 points. We had a couple of wide-open shots we didn't knock down that could have cut the lead to 13 or 14 which would have made it more exciting with five or six minutes to play."
While Harris did the most damage individually, Fitzgerald, the man normally responsible for most of the GW offensive output, did his share of damage as well.
Fitzgerald scored GW's first five points of the game and went on to finish with 23 points, 14 of which came in the first half.
While the play of Harris and Fitzgerald, who combined to score 56 of their team's 85 points was big, the biggest thing GW did to thwart the Comets was to confront Halifax County with a zone defense.
GW went into a zone defense in the second quarter and immediately stymied the Comets, taking them out of their up-tempo game. At the same time, the bigger, taller, more physical GW quintet outrebounded the Comets 16-8 in the first half and 31-20 for the game while, in many instances, allowing the Comets only one shot at the hoop.
"When they went zone it killed us," Dillard pointed out.
"If they don't run zone, the game stays close and anything can happen. Their running zone was the difference in the ball game. We didn't get our shots off quick enough. We didn't attack the zone like we should have. A couple of times we did and we got a couple of good looks but when you don't have a dominant post man and you're not shooting the ball well from the outside it's tough."
The Comets didn't shoot all that badly, hitting 44 percent of their shots from the field.
Unfortunately, the shots didn't fall when the Comets needed them most.
By comparison, GW shot 57 percent from the field.
Prior to that the Comets appeared to be on the right path to keeping the game close for the packed audience, one of the largest crowds to see a Comets basketball game here in recent seasons.
After Fitzgerald vaulted GW to a 5-0 lead the Comets got a basket from Terez Garland and Roach converted a three-point play after being fouled on a layup attempt that he canned and tied the game.
Two free throws from Garland put the Comets up 7-5 with 6:20 left in the first quarter. GW, with a 6-0 run, took an 11-7 lead it never relinquished.
Garland scored a basket for his sixth point of the quarter to bring his team back to within two points at 11-9 with 4:13 left in the opening period.
The Comets fell behind by seven points but rallied to cut the deficit back to two points on a layup by Ballou with 27 seconds left.
But GW closed the first period with Brad Deshazo scoring by picking up a loose ball and sticking it in the hoop to give it a 21-17 lead.

Erol Bancroft Martin, 66, of 1083 Jones Store Lane, Halifax, died February 14 at Community Memorial Health Center in South Hill. Mr. Martin was born in Kingston, Jamaica on January 13, 1935, the son of William Martin and Amazina Martin and was married to Ercelle Combs Martin.
Survivors include his wife; one daughter, Karla Martin of Silver Springs, Md.; two sons, Erol B. Martin Jr. of Silver Springs and Sean Martin of Vancouver, Wash.; three brothers, George Martin, Hugh Martin and Carl Martin, all of Kingston; one sister, Sonia Martin of Kingston; two grandchildren; and one stepchild, Mark Webster of Elmont, N.Y.
The scattering of Mr. Martin's cremains will take place in Jamaica at a later date.
The family is receiving friends at the home.

Martha Cage Martin, 86, of Halifax died February 11 at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Martin was born in Halifax County on December 25, 1914, the daughter of James Cage and Laura Snead Cage and was married to James W. Martin Sr. She was a member of St. Luke CME Church.
Survivors include one son, Charles Dewey Marable; and number grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Funeral services for Mrs. Martin were held February 17 at 11 a.m. at St. Luke CME Church with the Rev. Leonard Jones II conducting the service. Burial was in the church cemetery.

Beryl Dixon Ellixson, 79, of Florence Avenue, South Boston, died February 17 at Duke Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
Mrs. Ellixson was born in Person County, N.C. on March 7, 1921, the daughter of Caster Lee Dixon and Gladys Tuck Dixon and was married to Woodrow V. Ellixson. She was a member of Florence Avenue Baptist Church.
A funeral service will be held today, February 19 at 11 a.m. at Florence Avenue Baptist Church with the Rev. Leslie Puryear officiating. Burial will follow in Virgilina Ceme- tery.
Survivors of Mrs. Ellixson include two daughters, Kay Smith of Graham, N.C. and Glenda E. Lassiter of Virgilina; four sons, Woodrow V. Ellixson, Ronnie Ellixson and Ray Ellixson, all of Southport, N.C. and Gene Ellixson of Virgilina; two sisters, Hazel D. Gentry of Alaska and Gladys Lee D. Yancey of Bon Air; two brothers, Guy W. Dixon of Calif. and Allen T. Dixon of Ariz.; 15 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.