THOUSANDS BOUGHT THE FARM SO THE STATE OF N.C. COULDN'T

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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 9, 1992                   TAG: 9202090291
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TOM PRICE COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: OXFORD, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium
THOUSANDS BOUGHT THE FARM SO THE STATE OF N.C. COULDN'T
The thought hit John Pike as he showered before heading for his law office one morning:
It took four law firms almost five years to trace all the heirs of one former slave who had acquired a farm outside Oxford after the Civil War.
How long would it take - and how much would it cost - for the state to process eminent domain actions against several thousand owners of the same land?
The answer: longer and costlier than the state could handle.
As a result,
Pike and his neighbors blocked construction of a hazardous waste incinerator in their community.
Part of the former slave's farm is preserved as an environmental park.
Several environmental protection groups, formed to fight the incinerator, remain active in the We recognize we've got to be in the system in order to make the system work Attorney John Pike community.
Pike and another incinerator opponent, who were not politically active before, are running for the North Carolina Legislature in this year's elections.
Pike had finished helping to settle John Jones' estate - because some heirs wanted to sell the land - when state plans for the incinerator became public in the spring of 1990.
"With [the search for heirs] fresh in my mind," he said, "it occurred to me: Why don't we do the same thing to the state of North Carolina - make it extremely difficult to locate the landowners and blow the budget for this thing right out of the water?"
He remembered how environmentalists had saved a sand dune by selling fictional square-inch parcels to raise money to purchase it.
The Jones farm sat in the heart of the land the state wanted for the incinerator. Selling real shares of it to thousands of owners would make it nearly impossible for the state to seize it.
He persuaded the heirs to sell him 48 acres, borrowed $70,000 from a local tobacco company that was worried about the incinerator's effect on crops, incorporated the property as the non-profit Jonesland Environmental Park, issued 70,000 shares and began selling them for $5 each.
"In one weekend we raised $35,000" because some incinerator opponents bought from $100 to $1,000 worth of shares, he said.
A report in The Atlanta Constitution spurred network television stories, and soon Pike was getting phone calls and letters from around the world.
"A telephone operator called after her shift, because she had gotten so many directory-assistance calls for John Pike and she wanted to know what was going on," Isabel Washington, Pike's paralegal, recalled.
The post office delivered letters addressed simply to "Land Grab, Granville County, N.C.," Priscilla Pike, the lawyer's wife and office manager, said.
Jonesland soon had more than 6,000 owners from around the United States and several foreign countries. Members of a Russian dance troupe, who happened to be performing in the area, took shares home with them.
The state gave up, but set its sights on land it already owned about 20 miles down the road.
The Jonesland organization wasn't the only anti-incinerator group in the area, however. Citizens had organized Granville Residents Opposed to Waste, Granville Nonviolent Action Team, Granville Musicians and Friends (who entertained at rallies and put on fund-raising concerts) and anonymous professionals and business executives who worked behind the scenes.
Their ranks swelled by neighbors of the second site, the local activists acquired enough political clout to chase the incinerator out of the county.
The organizations remain active on environmental issues - recycling, educating, offering rewards for capture of illegal dumpers, for example.
Shares continue to be sold in Jonesland, which now has about 10,000 owners. With the debt retired, income is being set aside for park development.
Pike and Wallace Bradsher, the GROW president, are running for seats in a multimember state legislative district.
"We recognize we've got to be in the system in order to make the system work," Pike said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB