Four candidates are vying for three seats on South Boston Town Council and Mayor Glen Abernathy is running unopposed in his bid for re-election Tuesday.
In addition to South Boston, two at-large seats are up in the Town of Halifax and town council races are set in Scottsburg and Virgilina.
The polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
In South Boston, all residents will vote at the National Guard Armory on Hamilton Blvd.
Seeking council seats in South Boston are incumbents Radford Trent, who has served almost six years on council, and Carroll Thackston, who was appointed in January to fill the unexpired term of Corky Rorrer.
Political newcomers Coleman Speece and T. Chris Elliott are also seeking a slot on council.
South Boston councilmen serve four-year terms.
The four South Boston Council candidates were each asked to identify the most important issue facing council.
Economic development headed the list.
"I think that one of the biggest issues for council and the Board of Supervisors is to get industries to locate and provide jobs," said Trent, noting the high unemployment in Halifax County and throughout Southside. "Also, retaining existing industries," he emphasized.
Trent, a real estate agent, also sees consolidation of resources as key. "I am tickled to death with the relationship between the town and county," said the councilman. "Share resources and cut costs," he advised.
Thackston
"The most important issue facing council is not money, for a change," began Carroll Thackston. "We have a balanced budget with no need to increase taxes."
Although the Virginia Army National Guard retired major general described economic development as "not our direct responsibility," he said that "we must do everything we can, along with the county, to attract industry here, including high-tech (industry).
"And that might mean renovating the Taylor Building or even the downstairs at Faulkner Lawson. I think the most pressing thing is to bring new jobs here. We don't want to leave out current industries, but we must work with IDA (the Industrial Development Authority), the town and county so that we are all working together with the idea of bringing in new jobs.
"I mean being aggressive," he emphasized, naming the Martinsville incentive program as an example.
Speece
Retired Burlington executive Coleman Speece did not hesitate when asked the most important issue facing council.
"Creation of and retention of jobs," he said.
He targeted "more pressure from communities and industries for utilities, disposal of trash, water ... It takes extensive planning," Speece said.
"And education at all levels is important to the community and to industry."
The businessman views "efficiency in government" as crucial when communities face escalating costs and a shrinking industrial base. The combination, he explained, produces a situation that threatens the standard of living.
"I think the number one problem, not just for South Boston but for every community in Southside, is the matter of economic development. Our two major payrolls, textile apparel and tobacco, are both in trouble."
Speece sees towns as important players in economic development since town governments often control utilities and services.
The candidate said that it was important that towns work with the county and IDA people to make sure they have a chance to get an industry.
"First understand what is important to industry and then make it our business to help," he added.
Elliott
"I feel that the greatest opportunity is the ability for council to be proactive and not reactive," said South Boston native T. Chris Elliott, who works in his family's electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling company.
"Too often in the past, South Boston has bandaged the problems when it is simply too late."
Elliott gave as an example the wastewater problem.
"We have let the problems go for so long, that we were forced to build Phase I of the wastewater treatment plant. Had we been looking into the infiltration and inflow problems before now, we perhaps would not have needed to build the extra capacity into the wastewater treatment plant.
"Going hand in hand with this is the opportunity for a better relationship with the county," added Elliott. "As long as the town is proactive, we can solve most anything."
Halifax
In Halifax, veteran councilman Harold Ray Younger Jr. is seeking re-election to one of two at-large council seats
Space for write-in votes will be on the ballot in Halifax. Two candidates, Gene Murray and Allen Stevens, had qualified to run in the May 2 election but cannot seek office since they live in the area taken in during the town's December 1999 boundary adjustment with the county.
Only residents of the town's existing four wards may vote or seek council seats in the Tuesday election since the U.S. Justice Department has not approved a voting plan including residents taken into the town's corporate limits by the December 1999 action.
Halifax Ward Locations
Halifax residents will vote in their respective wards on Tuesday. Ward A residents vote at Christ Episcopal Church, 545 North Main St.; Ward B residents vote at the Municipal Building on Main Street; Ward C residents vote at the Halifax Elementary School; and Ward D residents vote at Beth Car Baptist Church.
Virgilina
In Virgilina, John Edward Youngk has filed for the mayor's seat. Mayor Stover Long is not seeking re-election.
Virgilina councilmen Rufus Edward Chandler Jr., R. Michael Glasscock, Mary Helen Gravitt, Beverly S. Murray and Thomas Keith Tuck Jr. have filed for re-election. Ralph Owen Murray Sr. also qualified for the council race.
Adding spice to the Virgilina race is residents' well-known proclivity for write-in votes.
Virgilina residents will vote at the Virgilina Volunteer Fire Dept. station.
Scottsburg
Scottsburg's council race will turn on write-in votes. Mayor Ricky Gordon has announced that he will not seek re-election and no one filed for that post or the two vacant council seats.
However, Gordon said last week that one person is considering a run for the mayor's post.
Current Scottsburg councilmen Ronald K. Claiborne, Connie Glass and Mattie R. Stoner are seeking re-election in the May 2 race.
Scottsburg residents will vote at the Scottsburg Volunteer Fire Department.

Facing a packed agenda tonight, supervisors must make a decision on the school budget, conduct five public hearings, hear a request from emergency services for a high-band radio system, as well as regular county business.
The Board of Supervisors meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Mary Bethune Complex in Halifax.
Public hearings get underway at 8 p.m.
Since state law requires that school budgets be approved by May 1, supervisors will decide the county's funding for the proposed $43,382,172 School Board budget.
During a public hearing last week, Superintendent of Schools Dennis Witt told supervisors that the school system could commit $200,000 to the $389,000 difference between the School Board's budget request and supervisors' proposed school funding.
"We are asking supervisors to consider $189,000 in additional funding," Witt said at the hearing.
He explained that due to fewer students, the school system would receive about $110,000 less in state revenues.
Witt said that the school system "would be hard pressed to make up the $389,000" difference between the school's and the county's proposed budgets, as well as the $110,000 loss in state funding.
In other business, Sheriff Jeff Oakes is expected to seek new radio frequencies and communications equipment. Preliminary estimates range from $400,000 to $850,000, depending on antennae locations, frequency requirements and equipment brands and quantity, he wrote supervisors in mid-April.
Rescue Squad leaders, volunteer fire departments and county E-911 dispatchers are calling for the upgrade. One rescue squad member explained that she "cannot hear and cannot call back" in some sections of the county.
Public hearings set for tonight include the following:
·Dunn & Sons Funeral Services, based in Washington, D.C., has filed an application to rezone 1.2 acres from A-1 Agricultural to B-2 General Business at a 1.2 acre site located at the corner of Route 832 and Route 676.
The Halifax County Planning Commission voted 7-0 against recommending rezoning application during its regular session last week.
·An application filed by Gerald and Frances King to rezone a one-acre parcel from A-1 Agricultural to B-2 General Business did not receive the Planning Commission's approval for recommendation.
Supervisors will hear the request from King, who wants to open an auto body shop. The site is located on the east side of Route 501, approximately 1,000 feet south of the intersection of routes 40 and 632.
·J.M. Huber Corporation is seeking a modification of its conditional use permit to construct an addition of 38,050 square feet, with the expansion for relocation of the welding/fabrication area, and for the addition of an oriented strand board overlay production line.
This is a nine percent expansion of the facility, with an $8 million investment. A spring 2001 start-up date is estimated.
The Huber facility is located on the west side of Route 626, 2.0 miles north of Route 360. The Planning Commission endorsed the application at its regular meeting last week.
·The amendments proposed for the subdivision ordinance dealt with the changes mandated by the Virginia Department of Transportation to bring the county's ordinance into compliance with VDOT's regulatory framework. Bringing new roads into the secondary system under the VDOT Rural Addition's program is at issue.
·Animals and Fowl Ordinance Amendment to allow the use of a muzzleloading rifle from a stand elevated a minimum of 10 feet above ground level during the first 15 days of the state's prescribed regular season for deer hunting. This is in addition to the muzzleloading rifle use permitted during the state's prescribed open early muzzleloading season for deer hunting.

South Boston Town Council will hold its monthly committees' work session today at 5:45 p.m.
The work session will be held at council chambers at 502 Yancey St.
The following issues are on the committees' agenda:
· Butch Joyce and Jeff Fantell of Joyce Engineering will present a landfill status update.
· Town Manager Ted Daniel will give a status briefing on the application of ReUse Technology for a long- term commitment of applying fly ash on property owned by the town and Dixie, Inc.
The purpose of the application would be to develop the terrain adjacent to the ball fields for improved parks and recreation use.
· Town staff will review existing street lighting on Lincoln Dr. with the committee.
· The Planning Commission has held a public hearing and recommended to council that Section 114-200(b) of the Zoning Ordinance be amended to allow the replacement of nonconforming single-wide manufactured homes with double-wide homes.
This would be accomplished by special exception and approval of the Board of Zoning Appeals.
A public hearing on this proposed amendment is scheduled for the May Town Council meeting on May 8.
· A public hearing on the 2000-2001 budget for South Boston is also scheduled for the May 8 council meeting

By BOB LEWIS
Associated Press Writer
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) - Helena Hairston never gave much thought to trends in global trade and hemispheric politics. For her and her husband, Timothy, life revolved around their three daughters, their home, and work.
Work, for them, was Martins-ville's giant Tultex Corp. For years - 15 for her, 20 for him - they toiled at the mighty cutting and sewing machines that turned miles of fleece fabric into millions of sweatshirts and sweatpants. It wasn't glamorous work, but it was steady and reliable.
And then one day, just before Christmas, the Hairstons and  hundreds of other Tultex workers found themselves without jobs or health insurance - one hospital stay from ruin.
The Hairstons and others laid off by Tultex know they are victims of a shrinking world of global trade in which their jobs and other manufacturing trades are moving to countries where workers make only a fraction of the money American workers command. They tend to lay the blame mostly on the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, a treaty between the United States, Canada and Mexico that tore down most barriers to imports and exports among the three neighbors.
Experts in global trade, however, say that U.S. apparel jobs were in peril well before NAFTA was ratified in 1993. Gary Shoesmith, director of the Wake Forest University Center for Economic Studies, said low-tech factory jobs will continue to flow overseas, and Asia will eventually dominate apparel manufacturing.
''Trade will be wide open worldwide, and that means China will be the big dog on the block,'' he said. ''And if you think NAFTA had an impact, just wait. Compared to what's coming next, that was really just a dress rehearsal.''
The tradeoff U.S. leaders envision is that Americans will come out ahead because of their country's lead in research, development,  manufacture and marketing of computer hardware, software,  communications and online services.
That's of no solace to some 3,400 former textile workers in  Martinsville, a city of about 16,000 where factories that turned out T-shirts, exercise togs and baseball caps were a historic mainstay of the local economy.
''The first month, all I could do is just sit here, look around at everything in our little house and cry and cry and cry,'' Helena Hairston said, her eyes moistening as they scanned her well-scrubbed kitchen and dining room. She and her husband scrimped for years to buy the home in 1995.
Mrs. Hairston was among many who always had an uneasy feeling about NAFTA. Lately, NAFTA has become a sort of shorthand for the grief that the industry and the community have experienced.
Don't get Amy Gravely started on imports.
Three years ago, Gravely opened Glad Rags, a high-end women's boutique directly across the street from Tultex's downtown administrative offices. Much of her business came from the company's executives, so when Tultex closed its doors, her store was forced to do likewise.
''In the clothes business, that's almost all you see any more - imports. It's cheap stuff, and it's just taking over,'' she said as she sat in her empty, deserted store. ''Maybe we did put all our eggs in one basket, but NAFTA came along and broke all the eggs.''
The AFL-CIO agrees with her. It blames NAFTA for the loss of at least 400,000 American jobs but suggests the actual number may be far higher.
Mark Levinson, chief economist for the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in New York, estimated that the apparel industry lost 317,000 jobs and the textile industry lost 133,000 in the six years since NAFTA became law in the United States.
The problem has been especially keen in the rural South, where sewing factories in small towns began to swoon before NAFTA came along, and suffered even more afterward, Levinson said.
In Smithville, Tenn., most of the clothing factories that once girded the economy there withered in the early 1990s, said Don Rigsby, executive director of the DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce. ''People were commuting to wherever they could to find jobs,'' he said.
Eventually, other, better-paying industries moved in and more than filled the void, Rigsby said.
Wake Forest's Shoesmith and other NAFTA defenders point out that apparel's slide began before NAFTA - in the late 1980s, when tariffs on Mexican goods were slashed in half.
In 1994 and 1995, the U.S. trade equation with Mexico was thrown drastically out of kilter when the value of the Mexican peso plunged by more than 50 percent against the dollar. That made Mexican goods dirt cheap north of the border and American goods virtually unaffordable south of it, Shoesmith said. What had been a trade surplus with Mexico quickly became trade deficit, and remains so today.
Automation also is to blame for displacing many workers, Shoesmith said. That explains why total U.S. apparel shipments increased by 3.4 percent since 1993, even as the industry pared 300,000 jobs.
Shoesmith said NAFTA is more likely a symptom of inevitable changes in global commerce. By banding themselves into a hemispheric trading bloc, the United States, Canada and Mexico stand a better chance to withstand increasing competition from Asia, he said.
But what about the rising number of laid-off factory workers?
Congress, sensing that NAFTA could hurt some manufacturing sectors, established a job-retraining program for people who lost jobs after the treaty took effect.
By the end of March, nearly 232,500 people had been certified by the Department of Labor for the NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance benefits, according to Global Trade Watch, an arm of the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen.
Of the 53,459 people certified to receive NAFTA-TAA benefits in the first three months of this year, 96 percent had lost manufacturing jobs, and one-third of the total - 17,603 - were classified as having worked in ''apparel and other textile products.''

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Gov. Jim Gilmore said he considers a state-funded health insurance program for displaced textile workers ''radical,'' but said he may sign legislation instituting the program anyway.
''I might sign the bill,'' Gilmore said Thursday during the monthly call-in radio show on WRVA. ''I haven't decided yet.''
Gilmore has been critical of proposals to provide supplemental  unemployment benefits to workers who have lost their jobs because of layoffs at textile plants in Martinsville and Henry County.
He also said he was nervous about providing health insurance for some unemployed workers, but not others.
''I'm faced with a stark choice,'' he said. He can either endorse the General Assembly's plan or veto it and risk reigniting animosity from Southside Republicans.
Gilmore said creating an insurance program for displaced workers in cities and counties with high jobless rates could force tax increases.
''We are trying to avoid a situation where we extend government  health care to everyone that becomes unemployed,'' the governor said.
At its one-day reconvened session on April 19, the General  Assembly rejected Gilmore's proposal to replace the health insurance proposal with a statewide grant program.

Several generations of Halifax horseback riders have negotiated the banks of Kent's Creek, plunging into its meandering waters en route to the open riding trails.
The years, however, have not been kind to Kent's Creek.
Until Saturday ...
Led by Carl Espy, program coordinator for The Banister Preservation Alliance, a small band of volunteers and property owners along Ball Park Loop wrestled a washing machine, an electric range, a refrigerator, a toilet and several tires from the creek.
Clearing the creek and the roadway's shoulders, volunteers also harvested a 20-inch television set, a total of 14 tires, a car battery and assorted household trash.
A stack of heavy, orange trash bags reflected the group's work as they cleared the stream's path on its way to the Banister River, the Town of Halifax's water supply.
Earlier this spring, members of The Alliance conducted a Paddle & Pick-up trip along a 10-mile stretch of the Banister River from Meadville Bridge to the shores of Banister Lake.
The crew of six filled seven large VDOT garbage bags during the six-hour journey.
The volunteers also sighted osprey, great blue heron, anhinga, wild turkey, various waterfowl and one wily river otter, according to Espy.
Volunteers participating in the Saturday clean-up project included Espy and his wife, Bee, Fielding Lewis, Mickey Lewis, Evelyn Burns Cunningham, Hester Burns, James Edmunds, Bill McLaughlin, Robert Wooding Jr., James Daniels and Jed Dunavant.
VDOT and RC&D also sponsored the Saturday project.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Farmer-activist John W. Boyd Jr. is within easy reach of the number of delegates needed to capture the Democratic Party nomination for Congress in Virginia's 5th District.
Boyd, a Mecklenburg County tobacco farmer and founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, claims the support of 136 of the 154 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination May 20 at the district convention in Rustburg.
Allen Hale, chairman of the Nelson County Democratic Party, acknowledged that he trails Boyd in the nomination contest. The winner will oppose Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., a Rocky Mount independent who left the Democratic Party in January to caucus with Republicans.
Hale said he has the support of about 50 delegates, most from Charlottesville and Nelson County.
''I expect John will be able to get the nomination, but it's certainly not certain,'' Hale said. More than 100 uncommitted delegates were chosen at local party meetings April 15 and April 17, and Boyd and Hale have been meeting with them to seek their support.
''I need less than 20'' delegates to win the party nomination, Boyd said. ''I'm not going to have a problem with that. It's going pretty good.''
Boyd praised Hale as a worthy opponent. ''Through this all, he's really a fair person. I really respect him,'' Boyd said. ''He carried himself like a gentleman.''
Boyd was not as complimentary of five Democratic state legislators who have said they either will support Goode for a third term in Congress or will not support his Democratic opponent.
''I think it's bad,'' Boyd said of the legislators from the Danville end of the district, Sen. W. Roscoe Reynolds and Dels. Ward L. Armstrong, Whittington W. Clement, Barnie K. Day and William W. Bennett Jr.
''I am disappointed about it,'' Boyd said. ''I am not going to let it stop my campaign because they are not supporting me.''
Ed Matricardi, executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia, said it is no surprise that five Democratic legislators in Goode's district either will support him or not support his opponent this fall.
''These folks are not going to play political suicide,'' Matricardi said. ''Congressman Goode is probably the most popular former Democrat in Southside.''

Rain on Friday has delayed the much anticipated Halifax County-Albemarle Western District baseball game until tonight.
The top spot in the Western District will be on the line here in tonight's 5 p.m. game pitting the Comets against the Patriots.
A Comets victory in tonight's game at Halifax County High School will move them into a tie with Albemarle for the Western District regular season crown.
"It's a very big game," said Comets coach Kelvin Davis.
" It's a game we need to win to get back into the district race."
Albemarle edged the Comets 2-0 with a no-hitter from ace lefthander Thomas Martin when they met in Charlottesville a couple of weeks ago.
As a result, a loss to Albemarle tonight will leave the Comets with two district losses and will put them into a position where they will likely have to win their remaining district games to land second place in the regular season standings.
The game here tonight will be a rematch of two fine teams and a rematch between two of the Western District's top hurlers.
Davis says he expects the Patriots to put Martin, who struck out 10 batters and gave up only two walks in the first meeting of the two teams, on the hill.
"He's a good pitcher but he's not unbeatable," Davis said of Martin who has already signed to play for the University of Richmond.
Davis indicated late last week he will likely go with Michael Priest who allowed only three hits and fanned eight batters in the initial meeting of the two teams in Charlottesville.
"Michael did an outstanding job for us up there," Davis said.
While Martin spun a good game on the mound when the two teams met earlier in Charlottesville, Davis said the reality was that the Comets did hit the ball.
"We hit the ball and we hit the ball well at times," Davis continued.
"But, we hit the ball right at someone and they (Albemarle) made the plays they needed to make."
Davis noted that for his team to be successful tonight, it simply needs to do what it did when it faced Northern Durham's solid lefthanded pitcher in the Halifax County Spring Invitational Baseball Tournament.
The Comets got only three hits in the game but they did the small things, the key things they needed to manufacture runs.
"That's the game of baseball," Davis said.
"You've got to get runners in scoring position and manufacture runs."

Patricia Fitzgerald, 44, of Pittsylvania Co., died Thursday, April 27, 2000.
Mrs. Fitzgerald was born in Pittsylvania Co. on May 12, 1955, the daughter of Webster Dixon and Margaret Dixon Daniel. She was married to Curtis Fitzgerald.
Her survivors include her husband; two sons: Stacie of Maryland and Webster of Halifax; daughter: Kim of Halifax; four grandchildren; step-father and mother, John and Margaret Daniel of Halifax; two sisters: Marilyn Gordon of Maryland and Angie Scott of South Boston; five brothers: Oliver Dixon of Washington, D.C., Starline, Willie and Kelvin Dixon of Maryland and John Daniel of Richmond.

A funeral service will be held Monday, May 1 at 1 p.m. at County Line Baptist Church, Vernon Hill with the Rev. Otis Dillard officiating. Burial will take place in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the home, 4077 Mountain Road, Halifax.

Mary Woody Williams, 92, of South Boston died Tuesday, April 25, 2000, in South Boston.
Mrs. Williams was born in Halifax County on June 10, 1907.

Her survivors include her daughter: Virginia Williams of South Boston and a sister-in-law: Louberta Woody of Norfolk.
A funeral service was held Sunday, April 30 at 1 p.m. at Williams Temple CME Church, South Boston with interment in the church cemetery. The Rev. George Brown officiated.
ck Chapel Holiness Church with the Rev. Joseph Dixon officiating. Burial was in the church cemetery.

Virginia Wilkins Oliver, 98, of 1211 Flint Rock Road, Turbeville, died April 28, 2000 at Roman Eagle Nursing Home.
Mrs. Oliver was born in Halifax County on October 23, 1901, the daughter of Addison E. Wilkins and Lee Virginia Foster Oliver. She was a married to James Edward Oliver and was a member of Mt. Carmel Presbyterian Church.
Her survivors include a daughter: Virginia Lee (Ginny) and Wayne (Pete) McCraw of Lynchburg; two sons: James Edward and Nan S. Oliver III of Turbeville and Addison Wilkins Oliver; two grandchildren: Lee Leavitt and Kevin Leavitt and a great-grandchild: Miles Leavitt.
A funeral service was held today, May 1 at 11 a.m. at Mt. Carmel Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Elbert Williamson officiating. Burial will take place in the church cemetery.
In lieu of flowers please consider the Turbeville Volunteer Fire Department or a church of your choice.

Randolph Carson "Randy" Andrews, 53, of Rt. 29, Blairs, died April 29, 2000 at Danville Memorial Hospital.
Mr. Andrews was born in Pittsylvania County on May 13, 1946, the son of Charlie Donald and Mary East Andrews. He was a member of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church.
His survivors include three sons: Donald Andrews of Danville, Tony Andrews of Pelham, NC and William King of Danville; daughter: Lisa Glore of Cornelia; devoted friend: Patricia Frances of Blairs; three brothers: J.T. of Greensboro, NC, Wayne of Halifax, Ralph of Blairs; four sisters: Joan Crowder of Halifax, Raye Henderson of Veron Hill, Peggy Walker and Ruby Betterton of South Boston; eight grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a brother, Ollis and sister, Alease Stephens.
A funeral service will be held today, May 1 at 2 p.m. at Powell Funeral Home with the Rev. Rudolph Jacobs conducting the service. Burial will be held at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church cemetery.

Douglas Everette Williams of South Boston died Wednesday, April 26, 2000 at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.
Mr. Williams was the son of Odessa and Issac Williams Sr. and was married to Katie Hunter Williams.
His survivors include his wife; three daughters: Princetta, Etang and Tashi, all of South Boston; mother of Lumberton, NC; two sisters: Jennifer Williams and Constance Campbell of Lumberton; two brothers: Isaac Williams Jr. of Lumberton and Roderick Williams of Philadelphia, PA and mother-in-law: Bettye Hunter of Nathalie.

A funeral service was held Saturday, April 29 at the St. Paschal Catholic Church in South Boston with interment in the Oak Ridge Cemetery.