Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994 TAG: 9402210046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One afternoon last week, \ Ron Miller stopped to chat with city workers constructing a storage room next to his office in the Municipal Building.
But Miller, the city's building commissioner, didn't notice one important detail: the workers didn't have a building permit.
"I imagine we ought to give them one," Miller told a reporter later.
The permit-less work next door is the latest embarrassment for the city's Building Inspections Department, which was cited last year in an auditor's report for inadequately inspecting elevator safety in the city and inconsistently assessing building permit fees.\ \ `Extra'-special cast party
When "\ Assault at West Point" plays on cable television's Showtime network next Sunday, a group of Roanoke Valley residents will be watching closely.
Tommy Firebaugh, a photographer and Norfolk Southern Corp. employee, has planned a potluck dinner at his house for others who were "extras" in the movie, which is about treatment of a black cadet at West Point in the 1880s.
The movie, formerly titled "Conduct Unbecoming," was filmed at Virginia Military Institute, Southern Virginia College for Women in Buena Vista and at a Staunton courthouse.\ Sandra Eubank helped with casting.\ \ Keillor enjoyed city - and socks
Several times during his two days in Roanoke,\ Garrison Keillor said he'd like to return with his public radio show,\ "A Prairie Home Companion," for a live, Saturday night broadcast.
His cast and crew agreed. They spent their off-hours exploring the city and liking what they saw.
Some went to the City Market. One visited the Virginia Museum of Transportation. A few played golf at Countryside. And some went to mini-Graceland and the Mill Mountain Star.
"It's such a friendly city," said\ David O'Neill, the production assistant. "I'm so glad we got to spend so much time here."
Roanokers went out of their way to help the show.\ Ken Rattenbury of the Fret Mill music store provided last-minute use of his upright bass to Molly Mason when Rick Palley, the bass player, was stranded by snow in New York.
The Mediterranean Restaurant on Campbell Avenue and the Charcoal Steak House stayed open late so cast and crew members could eat after performances.
Berglund Chevrolet underwrote the performances and provided the use of two vans. And Steve Mills, the manager of WVTF-FM, the public radio station, spent time searching for red socks for Keillor to wear during the remainder of the 10-day, southeastern tour. He found them at T.J. Maxx at Tanglewood Mall and Sears at Valley View.
He bought six pairs.\ \ Wilder's life gets tamer
Former Gov. Douglas Wilder says he's been too busy to have any withdrawal pains in his first month out of politics since the 1960s.
The Washington Post spotted Wilder pumping gasoline into a sport/utility vehicle in Richmond.
"Pumping gas isn't new, nor is driving," Wilder said. During his term as governor, he occasionally sneaked away from his state police chauffeurs to take spins in his antique Mercedes-Benz sports car.
Wilder, a bachelor, is back to cooking some of his own meals, which he said means, "I won't have to worry about getting fat."
He answers the phone in the office he has rented in the historic Shockoe Slip section of Richmond.
His papers in the state archives are one concern.
"I've accumulated a mountain of materials, and I've got to be present to make decisions about their disposition," Wilder said.
Some mementos of his 24 years of public service will be given to his alma mater, Virginia Union University, which plans to build a library in his name.\ \ But the Tar Heels would win . . .
There were a few light moments during the six days of testimony in\ Virginia Military Institute's latest court battle to maintain its all-male policy.
U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser seemed surprised when a fitness guru testified that students at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point are in better physical condition than any other college students.
"You don't think Dean Smith's basketball team [at the University of North Carolina] is in as good shape as the basketball team at West Point?" the judge asked James Peterson.
"There's not a doubt in my mind," responded Peterson, who trained soldiers at the academy for 19 years.
He said military educators could push athletes to their physical zenith but Smith could not.
"But as far as West Point's basketball team goes, I'd probably take Mary Baldwin's," Peterson added.\ \ Rotten to the core?
The leading scorer on the men's basketball team at Greensboro College,\ Brad Apple, is a lanky, clean-cut senior. But when his team visited Ferrum College last Monday night, the home team's game program included a typo - purely accidental, we're sure - that might have given the wrong impression about him.
The program identified him as "Bad Apple."
by CNB