Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007180208
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
And Law's not a bit happy about it.
Law lives in Craig County near the Montgomery County border. A couple of miles down the road is the home of his 84-year-old father, William Roy.
And in a field near the older man's house off Virginia 621 are the Law family's old cars, 35 or 40 of them, shielded from the gravel road by a meadow and a stand of trees.
That field is in Montgomery County, and that's why county officials are likely to hear more than they want to from Law Monday night.
Law's problem began when someone complained about the cars. He is now seeking permission to keep them there, even though the permit would cost him $300 a year.
Why?
Roy Law is a sentimental man.
He is sentimental about a Mustang that belonged to his late son-in-law. He'd like to fix it up for his grandson someday. And his daughter's 1978 Grand Prix, a victim of transmission problems. Most of the cars are American-made; the oldest is a 1946 Chevy.
Law, 50, is a Ford and Mercury man with a particular fondness for 1966 Fords. Many of the cars came from his relatives. He and his wife, Bernice, have 11 children.
There are other pieces of nostalgia in the auto graveyard - a wringer washer, bedsprings, several stoves and other appliances.
Most people with auto graveyards are junk dealers, so the county must regulate them as businesses, according to Jeff Scott, the county's zoning administrator. So Law is seeking a rezoning and special use permit for one acre of the property. If the supervisors do not approve his request, he will have to remove the cars from his land.
One potential roadblock: The site lies in the 100-year flood plain for Craig Creek.
For the Laws, the cool, clear water serves as a swimming hole and once was a baptism site. Law acknowledges that the creek has risen high enough to come into the field of cars two or three times.
Law also faces some neighborhood opposition. Cheryl Howard, whose property looks down on the auto graveyard, says she is gathering some signatures on petitions to oppose the permit. Law's cars detract from the beauty of the area, pose potential fire and water pollution hazards and could cause property values to fall, she says.
Virginia 621 runs in the shadow of Brush Mountain alongside winding Craig Creek, for which it has now been named.
One of the mountain's peaks provides some history. In 1971, a plane carrying World War II hero and actor Audie Murphy and five other men crashed, killing all aboard.
Law and a neighbor, Randolph Duncan, say they have some of the parts of the ill-fated plane.
The area was once filled with pulpwood loggers and moonshiners. Duncan says the former gave it up because there's no money in it anymore, and most of the latter are dead and gone.
But it's still out in the country. As the two men chat in Duncan's driveway, Duncan pulls about a dozen ticks off his blue tick hound.
And that's why Law objects to the regulations. He says he could understand it if he lived in Blacksburg, but out in the country, "It's a man's business to keep what he wants to."
Law is a right-of-way foreman for the Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative. He says he will pay the $300 for the permit - if he can get it - but he isn't happy about it.
"The Planning Commission ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of the county," he says.
When Law goes before the commission and the Board of Supervisors Monday, Duncan will be sympathetic.
"I'd like to tell them exactly what I think of them," he says, "but the jailhouse is close by, you know?"
by CNB