Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 6, 1993 TAG: 9309060005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Ray Reed
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: This office apparently qualifies for an exemption that applies to buildings where the customer load is fewer than 150 people and no food or beverages are consumed on premises.
The office did receive some alterations for handicapped access recently because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Restrooms were not included.
A Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman in Richmond said customers at the office who ask to use the restroom can be escorted, because of security reasons, to one in the back.
The spokesman in Richmond is a long way from Christiansburg, of course, and you indicated you've never been offered the use of the employee restrooms in several visits over the years.
\ Child seats and pickups
Q: Please comment further on the question Thursday about it being legal to ride in the back of pickup trucks, in light of the law that children under age 4 must be in child safety seats. R.E., Roanoke
A: Thanks for raising this point. The law on child safety restraints applies, on its face, no matter where the child rides in a vehicle. So children younger than 4 apparently can ride in the back of a pickup, but only if they are in a child safety seat that is secured.
Going to that length to run a dangerous risk may seem absurd, but stranger things happen.
Another caller suggested that because the back of a truck lacks seat belts, it would not be legal to ride there. Sorry; seat-belt use by anyone older than 4 is required only in the front seat. Belt use isn't mandatory in the back seat of a car or the back of a truck.
\ Three amphitheaters
Q: I was recently at a sold-out event at the Walnut Creek amphitheater in Raleigh. What is its capacity, and are there other, larger amphitheaters in the area? D.F., Roanoke
A: Charlotte has Blockbuster Pavilion, the amphitheater that video built. Wolf Trap Farm, at Vienna in Fairfax County, offers entertainment variety from ballet through classical, country and comedy.
Walnut Creek accommodates about 20,000 and Blockbuster 19,000. Wolf Trap can handle about 3,000.
\ These tags are crowded
Q: I live in Abingdon, which still uses a metal tag instead of a decal for the town vehicle license. The way many cars and trucks are made today, there is no room to mount the tag without covering up part of the state license plate. Doesn't this violate the law that requires the state tags to be visible on both front and rear of the vehicle? P.P., Abingdon
A: Abingdon's police chief, Cecil Kelly, agrees that the tags often crowd one another. "But it doesn't violate state law when they do that," he said.
Abingdon is one of the few localities still using metal tags and apparently likes it for promotional purposes. Wytheville, one of the last metal-tag towns, went to decals in 1990.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
by CNB