Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312160167
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONETA LENGTH: Medium
William Lee, a house mover and rental property investor, was accused of dumping asphalt, cinder blocks, crushed rock and other construction leftovers in the Happy Acres subdivision near Hales Ford Bridge. The citation alleged that the materials were from another county, but Lee denied it, saying all the materials were from Bedford County except one load of stone from Montgomery County.
Neighbors told the Bedford County Board of Supervisors on Monday night that they were tired of the unsightly properties, and wanted them cleaned up and the heavy equipment removed.
"All we want is for it to . . . look halfway respectable," said Lee Williams, whose property is across the street from one of Lee's lots. "He brings in bricks, blocks and asphalt and dumps it right where we can see it."
There are two bulldozers, one dump truck and two mobile homes on the property.
Lee said he intends to use all the material he's dumped there to set up the mobile homes and to build a driveway.
He denied allegations that he dumped wire, lumber with protruding nails and piping, which neighbors said blocked a community walking trail. He didn't deny he dumped some materials in the trail's way. "But there was still plenty of room to walk around it," he said.
Neighbors said the trailers appeared two years ago, and one jutted several feet into the roadway, obstructing traffic for almost a year. They said Lee failed to put the trailers far enough from the road, a violation of the county's Land Use Guidance System regulations.
The county cited him with such a violation in May 1992. "Mr. William Lee has had over one year in which to set the mobile homes in place," a May 21, 1992, report read. "Only one of the two mobile homes has been set up, and it is badly damaged."
Both trailers have county permits, and erosion-control efforts seem to be working after an inspection this week, according to Jeff Burdett, the county's community development planner.
The neighborhood rumor is that the trailers were salvaged from the 1985 flood, but Lee denied that.
But Rita Lee, no relation to William Lee, is trying to sell her house and said the appearance of the three lots is making her effort extra tough. Her real estate agent has had 17 potential buyers decline to see her property once they saw Lee's lots, she said. "I'm really disgusted," she said. "We'd like to sell and get out of here. But until he can clean that up, there's no way anyone will move back in here."
This is not William Lee's first scrape with officials about dumping. He was charged with illegally storing or disposing of tires in November 1992. Lee owns property on Bent Mountain near Copper Hill where Floyd County deputies discovered an illegal dump containing about 3,000 tires.
The Bedford charge of disposing of materials from outside the county is a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to six months in jail as well as a $1,000 fine.
Lee is scheduled to appear in Bedford County General District Court on Jan. 26.
by CNB