Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990 TAG: 9007250210
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B/1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Explore also filed suit against one of Heard's subcontractors, Gary Winkler, who has bragged that he is withholding the documents necessary to reconstruct five of the living-history state park's frontier-era buildings.
The two legal moves are separate, but share a common theme: After the cash-pinched Explore laid off the two men most responsible for dismantling the old buildings, Heard and Winkler turned on the project and have been bad-mouthing it in the news media.
Explore officials, who had hoped to avoid a headline-grabbing legal showdown, declined comment on the cases Tuesday. However, both Heard and Winkler taunted Explore, as they have for months.
Winkler predicted Explore's action against him would enrage fellow preservationists, who he said support his contention that Explore is historically inaccurate.
Heard defied the Roanoke County Sheriff's Department to serve the summons on him today.
"I've got a locked gate to get through and they don't have a key," Heard said. "It'll be hard to deliver papers unless the sheriff wants to walk through a pasture with buffalo, and I don't see the sheriff doing that."
Heard claims he has a five-year, rent-free lease on the Explore farm on Rutrough Road and that Explore is trying to throw him out because project planners are angry with him for publicly criticizing their salaries. Explore contends Heard had a one-year lease that ran out last month.
Heard's case has attracted the most attention, though in the long run, Winkler's may be the most serious.
In 1988, Explore hired Heard's company to move the old buildings the project was collecting for its re-created Blue Ridge frontier town. Heard, in turn, hired Winkler to help.
But in November 1989, when Explore faced a budget crunch, Winkler was laid off.
Since then, he's been refusing to turn over notes and photographs necessary to reconstruct five of the buildings unless he is paid $9,075 to assemble them into a formal report.
Explore has said it can't afford and doesn't need such a report to reconstruct the buildings. But Winkler contends the raw notes are meaningless, and it would be unprofessional for him to turn them over.
In its suit, Explore argues that the project "will be irreparably injured if the drawings, photographs, field notes and related materials are not delivered" and asks the court to order Winkler to turn them over.
"I'm not going to give them anything," Winkler said Tuesday. "This is a preservation issue and needs to be heard in some forum. If the press isn't it, then maybe the courtroom is. I guess I need to be rallying the troops."
Winkler has 21 days to file a response in court.
Explore's relationship with Heard has been just as stormy.
Explore project director Bern Ewert raised eyebrows when he hired Heard in the fall of 1988 to move the old buildings and generally serve as Explore's jack-of-all-trades. After all, when Ewert was Roanoke city manager, the city had taken Heard to court, claiming he was running an illegal junkyard.
Heard also had a court record, including making verbal threats against city officials during the junkyard dispute. And Heard himself bragged about acting as a self-styled vigilante around his inner-city 13th Street home and brandishing guns at neighborhood toughs.
But Heard impressed Explore planners with his knowledge of old buildings, knowledge he demonstrated in work at the Pearl Buck homeplace in West Virginia.
"Yes, Ren had problems," Ewert said not long after he hired Heard. "I guess I could end up with a black eye before it's all over, but I think he's getting his life back on track, and I will give him a chance and keep a close eye on what he's doing."
Heard was given the title "master builder" and a rent-free house on Explore property in exchange for looking after the place. And from fall 1988 until April 1990, Heard was one of Explore's most visible staffers.
He also was one of its most expensive.
The River Foundation, the non-profit group running Explore for the state, paid Heard $6,000 per month in private funds for his services. The state board governing Explore paid Heard's company $212,760 in state funds over 14 months for moving old buildings.
Heard proved an unexpected resource for Explore in another way: His wealthy mother in Northern Virginia donated $5,000 to buy five buffalo, and Heard used his family contacts there to recruit two influential supporters - Fauquier County philanthropist Maggie Bryant and her son, environmentalist Carey Crane.
But since this spring, Heard and Explore have been on the outs.
Heard says the problem started May 1, when the Roanoke Times & World-News quoted him confirming that the River Foundation, caught in a cash-flow squeeze, owed his company for six months' worth of work.
On May 7, Explore planners told Heard the foundation wasn't going to renew his contract, saying the project couldn't afford to continue moving old buildings. The next day, records show, the state Explore board paid $214.50 in state funds to change the locks on all of Explore's property except the farmhouse Heard lives in.
Later, Explore officials told Heard to move out of the house when the lease ran out.
And that's the source of the current dispute, because the lease is vaguely worded and doesn't mention specific dates.
Heard claims the one-year lease started in December 1988, when he signed it and moved into the house. Explore officials contend the lease didn't start until June 13, 1989, when they signed it. Heard claims Explore officials put off signing the lease because they wanted to wait until after the newspaper published a lengthy story on Heard to see if the paper turned up any embarrassing information about him.
There's also a clause in the lease calling for an "automatic" five-year extension "if satisfactory to both parties."
Heard claims that because Explore took no action in January, when he contends the lease ran out, the lease automatically renewed through 1995.
But Explore officials say the lease ran out last month, and since then they've been trying to get Heard to leave.
Heard is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 6 to explain why he shouldn't be evicted. He said Tuesday he's looking forward to it. "There are two courts on this deal; one is legal and they may or may not beat me there," Heard said, "but there's also the public opinion court, and the public will see them beating up on me. That's the way the little guy is going to perceive it."
by CNB