Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412050060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CRAIGSVILLE LENGTH: Long
Nestled in the mountains between Lexington and Staunton is the story of an iron-willed fire chief and a go-for-broke mayor.
The fire chief says things started because he was ``pickin''' on the mayor. The mayor says it wasn't a prank.
But pickin' or not, the episode triggered a chain of events that left two doors ripped off their hinges and the future of the Craigsville Fire Department hanging in the balance, the town's residents hanging with it.
The flavor of America's past runs thick in Craigsville - population 1,000.
To get there, catch Virginia 39 out of Lexington and head through Goshen Pass, where the trek might be delayed to wait on a freight train at the Burke-Parsons-Bowley Corp. near Goshen.
One of the railroad cars has graffiti on it that reads, "Wallace for President." A hunter with a rifle walks on the outskirts of town. Old houses line the main street that runs beside the railroad tracks.
"This is Dodge City," said Bessie Largin, a resident of Craigsville for all of her 56 years.
Up on the hill next to the elementary school sits the town's municipal building, which houses part of the Fire Department, the Town Council chambers, and some town offices.
Built by the community in 1962, there was no legal posturing over who owned the building.
That's the way Craigsville operated.
"It's always been a community effort here," said town Councilman Bill Webb. "We just started being at odds recently."
\ Fire Chief Wayne Martin was born and raised in Craigsville.
He's been fire chief for 25 years, and of 59 charter members of the Fire Department, he's the only one still active.
Martin, 54, also served as a Town Council member for 10 years, losing a bid for re-election in 1992.
Mayor Herbert Campbell says Martin is disgruntled about losing his council seat.
"He always wanted to be mayor in this town," Campbell said.
But Martin said that's bunk.
"The residents of this town voted me out, not Mayor Campbell or any other council member," he said.
The Martin family is the soul of the Fire Department. Martin has two sons in the department, and there are 10 Martins among its 38 members.
"The Martin family has saved a lot of houses and a lot of lives in this community over the years," said Largin, sipping a cup of coffee at a local restaurant.
Campbell, 66, was appointed the town's mayor in 1990. He was born in Augusta County, but moved to Roanoke in 1947. He retired from Appalachian Power Co. and moved back to Craigsville in 1989.
"This was a nice little town when I left in '47," he said. "But it's disintegrated since. You've heard of renovating a building, well, I'm trying to renovate this town."
Those renovations include a project Campbell pushed for the red-brick municipal building.
A portion of the building used by the Fire Department was remodeled. It's now part of an expanded council chamber and includes a small office the mayor shares with the town police officer.
The town also built a new Fire Department building next to the existing municipal facility, but Martin and his men continue to use a section of the old building because it has a kitchen.
|n n| That was how the problem started - with the mayor and town employees continuing to share the old building with the Fire Department.
Two doors, on opposite ends of a hall in the back of the building, became the objects of the dispute.
The hall - where the bathrooms are located - runs from the old Fire Department side of the building to the town's side.
Campbell maintains that he and other town employees need access to the Fire Department because town spring water samples are taken from a faucet in the department's kitchen.
Last month, Campbell asked Martin for a key to the door at the Fire Department's end of the hall.
Martin voiced concerns about possible public access to firefighting equipment during council meetings.
"We had a robbery here in the 1970s, and some of our stuff was stolen," he said.
Campbell didn't get the key, and relations soured.
That's when Martin said he made a mistake.
"I decided to do a little pickin' on the mayor, so I went and locked the other door [on the town's side of the hall]. I believe that's the biggest mistake I've ever made."
For two days, the door remained locked because no one - Campbell, Town Clerk Helen Cauley or anyone else - had a key. The town employees were forced to go home to use the bathroom.
At the end of the third day, the door was still locked. The mayor decided to take action: Campbell and a town employee took the door off its hinges, and the mayor took it home.
When the door at the other end of the hall remained locked, Campbell had it taken down, too.
The fight was on.
"When [Campbell] did that, I was raving mad," Martin said.
Campbell put the second door in his office - which he locked.
That night, he says, someone broke into his office, grabbed the door, and put it back up.
He believes it was someone with the Fire Department.
Martin said it wasn't.
"I went to the Fire Department the morning after he says he took it down, and the door was sitting in the hallway. So I put it back up," said the fire chief.
Campbell had the door taken down again and lugged it home.
Then, like a Craigsville version of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Campbell stared across at the Fire Department through the doorless hallway. Firefighters stared back.
And no one budged.
Both sides enlisted the help of attorneys.
Ellen Arthur, a Lexington lawyer representing the Fire Department, sent a letter to Campbell informing him not to trespass on the Fire Department side of the building.
Town Attorney Jeff Gaines began exploring the possibility of evicting the Fire Department from the municipal building.
Complications surfaced.
The Fire Department was formed after the town adopted its charter, so it does not fall under town control.
"We answer to Augusta County," Martin said.
"They're a renegade fire department," Campbell replied.
To add to the mess, Campbell said the firefighters would be forced to move only out of the municipal building, and not their new digs next door.
But Martin disagreed.
Because the two buildings are connected by a breezeway, they are one and the same, according to insurance stipulations.
"If we're evicted from the old building, we'll sell all our equipment and shut down the Fire Department," he said.
|n n| Thursday, Martin sat calmly on the floor of his living room and discussed the situation.
Outside his house in the middle of Craigsville was an electric sign he set up. It read: CRAIGSVILLE AREA - DO YOU NEED A FIRE DEPARTMENT OR MAYOR CAMPBELL.
Martin took the sign down Thursday after a friend asked him to.
"It's ridiculous, it really is," Martin said of the controversy. "But I thought I needed to put the sign up to make the people in this town aware of what's going on.''
While Martin was talking, a man in an old delivery van stopped in front of the house, took a few pictures of the sign, and sped off.
On the side of the van was painted: GET MARTIN CLICK OUT OF CONTROL OF FIRE HOUSE FAMILY BUSINESS.
"It's C-L-I-Q-U-E," said Martin.
Asked what it would mean to him if the Fire Department disbanded, Martin's calm voice broke a little.
"How would you feel if your heart were ripped out?" he answered. "I haven't slept for days."
\ Meanwhile, Cauley, the town clerk since 1982 and a Craigsville resident for 44 years, refused to use the bathroom at the municipal building last week even though the hallway doors were gone.
"I'm not going back there until this is resolved," she said. "I just try not to drink too much coffee while I'm here."
Campbell and Bill Webb pieced together the details of the dispute as Cauley worked.
"I've received threatening phone calls," the mayor said. "Someone called me and, in a muffled voice, said, `I hope your house doesn't catch on fire.'''
A diabetic with high blood pressure, Campbell said the recent events have affected his health.
"My blood sugar's been going way up," he said. "But I'm not a quitter. Never have been."
Campbell, Martin and the attorneys involved were prepared to take the dispute to a $30-an-hour mediator, but they didn't have to.
The Craigsville Town Council met Thursday night. Campbell and Webb had announced earlier in the day that the door dispute would not be discussed.
But more than 60 people showed up, and Martin forced the issue.
The fire chief publicly apologized for playing a "joke" on the mayor and offered to give the town a key to the Fire Department's door if the town agreed to put it back up.
The five-member council voted unanimously in favor of Martin's olive branch. Campbell didn't vote - the mayor votes only in the case of a tie.
Friday, Campbell was in his office. He said work to replace the door was under way.
"I'm glad it's over. Thanks for calling, I'm getting ready to go get my medicine. All the excitement caused my blood sugar to go up again."
by CNB