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

DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993                   TAG: 9309140100
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Short

POSTAL SERVICE SUED OVER FENCE NEXT TO EATERY

Three Radford businessmen have sued the U.S. Postal Service over a fence built less than a foot from one of the fire exits at a new restaurant owned by the trio.

Jeff Jarvis, Marshall K. Hamden and Matthew E. Hamden bought the former Alleghany Bookstore at 1009 Norwood St. next to Radford's main post office last year with plans to convert it to a cafe.

After extensive renovations, the restaurant is nearly ready to open. There's only one problem: Postal workers have built a chain-link fence that blocks one of the restaurants' three emergency exits. Post office officials say the fence is to prevent vandalism and insist it stands on federal property.

The partners contend the land is theirs and that the fence is simply to block the building's exit. Jarvis asks that the Postal Service be required to move the fence and pay $10,000 in damages, according to the suit filed in the U.S. Federal Court in Roanoke.

by CNB