Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 10, 1993 TAG: 9306100103
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Last spring, Jeff Jarvis and Matthew Hamden decided Radford needed a restaurant that could cater to both students and adults in this college town - a "nice restaurant so people didn't have to go out of town to eat."
In April, the pair, along with Matthew's brother Marshall, decided to buy the former Alleghany Bookstore at 1009 Norwood St. next to Radford's main post office and convert it to a restaurant.
Construction started last July. Now a year and more than $200,000 later, the eatery is roughly three months from opening night - maybe.
On Wednesday, postal workers began building a chain-length fence that blocks one of the restaurants three emergency exits.
Post office officials say the fence is being built to prevent vandalism and insist it stands on federal property. The partners contend the land is theirs and that the fence is simply being built to block the building's exit.
Both parties have survey maps to back up their claims, so the disagreement may end up in court.
Regardless of who is found to own the land, Jarvis said he doesn't understand why the post office need to build the fence. The exit would only be used in emergency situations and there would be no public access to the post office site. Fences already surround the property that doesn't border the restaurant.
"It's a typical waste of government money for absolutely no reason other than to block our exit," he said.
Jarvis said he offered to pay for the fence if the post office would move it back two feet, but his offer wasn't accepted.
The partners have hired an attorney and plan to seek a federal court injunction to stop the fence from being completed.
George Puckett, a supervisor at the Radford post office, said the situation is unfortunate, but it's out of the local office's hands.
Earlier this year the postal service brought in a surveyor from Charleston, W.Va, who declared the government's property ran up against the former bookstore.
Puckett said the fence was needed because the post office had suffered about $10,000 worth of vandalism to it vehicles.
"What's the use of us having a fence around the rest of the property to keep vandalism out if he's going to have access to the property," he said.
On the restaurant owners' side is a survey on file in the Radford Courthouse completed by Dublin surveyor Lloyd Mathews.
John B. Spiers, Radford's city attorney, said that Mathews had an "excellent reputation" as a surveyor, but that land disputes aren't that uncommon.
"That's why we have the courts to decide it," he said.
Bob Long, Radford's building official, said it might be tricky to find a place to put another emergency exit if the court rules in the post office's favor.
The building code requires that the restaurant, slated to seat about 200, have at least 4 exits.
Jarvis said it could delay the project three months and cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to redesign and build a new exit.
"It's just a frustrating situation," said Marshall Hamden. "We just don't understand it."
by CNB