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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994                   TAG: 9407250047
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIGHT FOR PLATES WAS NOT IN VAIN

When Rudy Padgett of Salem went to the Crossroads Mall branch of the Division of Motor Vehicles in June and was told he couldn't get a specialty license plate signifying his service in the Korean War, his wife, Louise, decided something wasn't right.

"Veterans should never have to ask for their rights," she says. "They've already earned them."

So the determined wife of a combat veteran wrote letters to several people in high places - including Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem - expressing her opposition to a DMV policy that placed a freeze on more than half of the 200 vanity plates that were available in Virginia.

Complaints about the policy from people like Louise Padgett proved successful. The freeze was lifted when Gov. George Allen signed an amended bill passed during a special session of the General Assembly this month.

The amendment gives the DMV the authority to issue plates currently in use or production until June 30, 1995. The specialty license plate issue will be re-examined by a General Assembly committee in 1995.

Earlier this year, DMV put a hold on all license plates that were not approved by state legislation after the attorney general's office determined that the department lacked the authority to issue tags on its own initiative.

Plates that fell under the freeze included Korean and Vietnam war plates, as well as those for other organizations such as the Fraternal Order of Police.

Griffith said Friday that he received several complaints about the moratorium, and was glad to see the situation addressed during the special session.

Jeanne Chenault, a DMV spokeswoman, said her department also logged complaints about the freeze.

Louise Padgett said she learned the freeze was lifted earlier this week in a letter from the governor's office. She also received a letter explaining the change from Richard D. Holcomb, the DMV's commissioner.

"If you speak out, sometimes it makes a positive difference," Padgett said. "To me, [the policy] was pure discrimination. Some groups could get tags, and others couldn't."

by CNB