Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 21, 1991                   TAG: 9104210203
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FAMILY FAVORED IN WESTVACO SUIT

Ronald and Kathy Bowers and their two children, Micah and Justin, sued Westvaco, Pounding Mill, Inc., the company from which Westvaco leases the property, and Jennings & Webb Inc., a trailer-handling company.

Westvaco parks large trucks that store the mill's products in the truck terminal until they are picked up for delivery to customers. The terminal is separate from Westvaco's Covington paper mill.

The Bowerses' lawsuit charged that the terminal, in the county just outside Covington, created a private nuisance by covering their home with a greasy black film of diesel exhaust and by creating an annoyance and inconvenience.

William Parks, a Hot Springs lawyer who represented the family during the three-day trial, said Westvaco began operating the terminal in September 1989. The company also put a check-in station about 50 feet from the edge of the Bowerses' lot.

"Over-the-road trucks would come into the terminal, then trailer spotters [or handlers] would pick up the trailers and take them over to Westvaco," Parks said.

"The trailer spotter would pick up loaded trailers from Westvaco and bring them back to the terminal, where another over-the-road truck would pick them up."

In five months, the spotting trips jumped from 800 a month to 3,200, Parks said. The operation "kept the kids awake at night and gave them nightmares," he said. "It caused damage to their house."

Parks said the constant exposure to diesel fumes peeled paint in the Bowerses' home and left a heavy layer of dust.

The family complained last year to the Alleghany County Board of Zoning Appeals that the truck terminal was an unlawful use under the B-1 business zoning classification. The board agreed, Parks said.

But last month, the county Board of Supervisors approved a conditional rezoning of the property to a B-2 zoning classification, allowing Westvaco to operate the terminal within the legal bounds of the zoning ordinance, according to Alleghany County Administrator Macon Sammons.

Reached by telephone at his home Saturday, Sammons declined to give any details without having documents in front of him. The entire matter "is an extremely complex case," Sammons said.

Other Alleghany County residents have been fighting for more than a year to shut the truck terminal. Residents of the Pinehurst and Pine Valley communities just east of Covington have complained about a series of problems associated with the operation.

Alleghany County had sought to shut the terminal until appropriate zoning was obtained or objections were settled, but Westvaco obtained a Circuit Court order blocking a shutdown.

The Bowerses' lawsuit dates to May 1989, Parks said. "It started as a water-damage suit, but it's been amended several times," he said.

Circuit Judge Duncan M. Byrd Jr. has withheld a final ruling, as the jury's verdict is not binding. He has given all parties involved two weeks to file any further motions in the case.

Roanoke lawyer Thomas T. Lawson, who represented Westvaco, Pounding Mill and Jennings & Webb, said Saturday that he has filed a motion for judgment in their favor on the grounds that "there has been no showing of a nuisance."