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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 1, 1995                   TAG: 9501120091
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: F-1   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

1994

Regardless of how you judged the top stories of the year, 940 of you took the time to phone in your votes to InfoLine. Readers had many different ideas of what constituted the top story. Of the 94 news events in Western Virginia we listed on the ballot, 48 got at least one first-place vote.

We let readers rank their top five stories, in order. Just like the college football polls, we gave five points for each first-place vote, four points for each second-place vote, three points for third, and so on.

In the end, some clear patterns - and some curious ones, too - emerged.

1 - COUNTY CAT ORDINANCE\ Meow! This cat fight of a controversy was bigger than we thought.

The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors wrestled with a lot of tough issues in 1994 - whether to build a new Cave Spring High School, for instance. But it took the cat ordinance to make the fur really fly. Fed up with complaints of free-ranging kitties squatting in suburban lawns to do their business, Roanoke County supervisors took up some business of their own. On April 12, they voted 4-1 to start licensing cats.

The board wasn't pussyfooting around, either. Except in agricultural areas, county residents are now limited to no more than six cats, only two of which can be fertile. Kitties can still roam free, but their masters are on a legal leash, of sorts, with the pooper-scooper provision: Owners of any domesticated animal must promptly clean up after a pet defecates on a neighbor's property.

Credit - or blame, if you're a cat-lover - Hollins District Supervisor Bob Johnson for causing the stink. Or, more precisely, bringing the stink to the board's attention. "In the summertime, when there's no breeze, cat droppings ... can foul an entire subdivision, or at least a cul-de-sac," Johnson said. Without a cat ordinance, residents "have no hope in the county."

The debate over the ordinance produced snickers among supervisors. But it apparently was the cat's meow with our readers, who voted it the biggest news story of the year in Western Virginia - or second biggest, if you count Roanoke Catholic. Why? We can't explain it, either. Let's just say the cat's got our tongue.

Total points: 1,592

2 - WINTER WEATHER

Last winter's triple-dip ice storms made a mess out of Western Virginia. But it was a memorable mess.

The first ice storm hit in mid-January, packaged between two Arctic blasts that plunged temperatures as low as ... well, there's still some dispute over that. Roanoke measured minus 6, the fourth lowest on record. But some of the unofficial readings were even lower - a minus 20 in Franklin County and Montgomery County, a minus 40 up in Highland County. The weather brought tragedy, too: In Hardy, three children died in a kerosene-related fire.

That turned out to be just the beginning. On Feb. 11 and March 2, the second and third ice storms hit Western Virginia, knocking out power in some communities for several days. Utility crews came from as far away as Ohio to hook us back up. The effects of those three storms lasted long after the ice had melted : Highway crews spent much of the summer patching weather-related potholes and clearing away fallen trees. Obstetricians, nine months later, recorded a baby boomlet. And the ice storms that wrecked the woods even led to a kissless Christmas: All those downed trees meant a shortage of mistletoe.

Total points: 1,063.

3- APCO POWER LINE

It's been almost five years since Appalachian Power Co. proposed to string a 765,00-volt power line from Oceana, W.Va., to Cloverdale.

In 1994, the long-flickering controversy was bright enough to capture the public's attention - and make the list of the region's top stories of the year.

Maybe it was because the Jefferson National Forest, which is conducting an environmental impact study on the route's effect, announced in June that it is studying new routes - including some through Blacksburg. Maybe it was because folks around Peters Mountain on the West Virginia line complained that the national forest experts haven't spent enough time studying the "cultural" impacts of the line on their community's rural heritage. Maybe it was because the Forest Service was finally compelled to announce in December that its long-delayed report will be delayed even more. By year's end, both the utility and its opponents could agree on this much: They're frustrated with delay.

Total points: 597.

4 - VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

The Martinsville museum was put on the state's endangered species list in 1994.

When Speaker of the House A.L. Philpott of Henry County presided over the Virginia legislature with a gavel and a scowl, the Virginia Museum of Natural History was one of the prime exhibits of his power.

He won initial state funding for the idea in the mid-1980s, then oversaw its conversion into a full-fledged state agency. But, with Philpott dead, Martinsville was shocked to discover in 1994 that its hold on the museum wasn't a sure thing.

The controversy flared up in January, when it was revealed that museum leaders - and some state legislators - had engaged in merger discussions with the Explore Park in Roanoke County. Perhaps the two financially struggling institutions could join forces, with the museum putting its long-awaited expansion on Explore's 1,300 acres, next to the busy tourist traffic of the Blue Ridge Parkway, rather than out-of-the-way Martinsville?

Martinsville citizens - and their elected leaders - fought like a cornered velociraptor, and the idea of a merger with Explore was dropped. Later, though, Gov. George Allen's "strike force" to reorganize state government put the museum in its sights, proposing to eliminate its funding.

Martinsville again galvanized a protest, and the strike force left the museum untouched. Nevertheless, a number of localities around the state have taken notice of the museum, and expressed an interest in having all or part of it in their communities. Among them: Roanoke County. Look for this story to live on in 1995.

Total points: 560.

5 - MULTIPLE MURDER IN VINTON

For the first nine months of 1994, the Roanoke Valley didn't record a single murder.

That tranquility seemed even more remarkable when contrasted with the state capital - Richmond was gaining national notoriety for posting the nation's second highest murder rate. But, on the morning of Aug. 29, firefighters responded to an East Virginia Avenue address in Vinton and discovered more than a house fire. A family of four was dead inside; the father and two children had been shot, the mother strangled. It was the valley's first multiple murder in years. Worse yet, the crime seemed to stump authorities - who questioned a family friend and searched his property, but then declared he wasn't a suspect. As 1994 wound down, the murder of the Hodges family remained unsolved, and the valley's citizenry perplexed.

Total points: 318.

6 - INTERSTATE 73

Before 1994, few in Western Virginia had heard of the proposed Interstate 73. It's a sure bet they have now.

The first three months of the year saw such a commotion, you'd have thought the bulldozers were about to plow through. State highway planners released maps of the proposed routes, residents of Bent Mountain and other communities along the way rose up in protest, and political leaders openly wrestled over where the Detroit-to-South Carolina highway should run through Virginia - along the existing I-77, or through the Roanoke Valley. The Roanoke route won out, at least as far as the state transportation board is concerned. After that, opponents turned their attention to Congress, jamming the fax machine of West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall - chairman of a key transportation subcommittee - with so many messages, the thing broke.

But what's it all mean? That's hard to say. Virginia and North Carolina still disagree on where the highway should cross their border. Congress still hasn't funded the road. Indeed, there are questions whether it will even be an interstate - or even a highway of any kind. Perhaps it'll turn out to be just a widened and straightened U.S. 220. Maybe 1995 will bring an answer to those questions.

Total points: 276.

7 - 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY

The 50th anniversary of World War II's pivotal battle held special significance for Western Virginia: Its sons - now its grandfathers and great-grandfathers - were in the first wave on that longest day on Normandy Beach in 1944.

Bedford County paid an especially awful price to help liberate France from the Nazis; 19 Bedford men died at D-Day. As the 50th anniversary approached, Bedford found itself the focus of international attention: Television crews from France came to pay their respects and interview the survivors. A delegation of Western Virginia veterans traveled to Normandy to visit the towns they'd helped liberate, where they were feted as heroes. Roanoke veteran Bob Slaughter found himself in the biggest spotlight of all; he was among a handful of old soldiers who walked on Omaha Beach with President Clinton.

Back home, the 50th anniversary of D-Day sparked a local skirmish: A group that hoped to build a D-Day memorial complained that Roanoke Mayor David Bowers wasn't much interested in the project. After the group picked Bedford County as the site for the memorial, Bowers criticized other Roanoke Valley localities for failing to rally behind his proposed site near the Hotel Roanoke.

Total points: 207.

8 - SALEM BASEBALL

The Roanoke Valley loves its minor-league baseball team, so the off-field changes with the Salem Buccaneers were big news for many readers.

First came the deadline to meet pro baseball's new standards on minor league parks, which the lovely old field in Salem's East Bottom couldn't. Next, came a new owner, or so we thought. Salem City Council didn't take kindly to New Yorker Eric Margenau's bid to buy the team, and gave him the municipal equivalent of a brush-back pitch. Not long afterward, Kelvin Bowles decided he didn't want to sell the team, after all - especially since Salem had decided to ask voters for permission to build a new stadium. The outcome of that midsummer referendum in sports-happy Salem was never in doubt. By year's end, Salem had a new baseball stadium going up near its Civic Center, and the team had a new major league affiliation (the Colorado Rockies) and a new nickname (the Avalanche) for 1995. Play ball!

Total points: 182.

9 - VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE

A Virginia Military Institute education separates the men from the boys - not to mention the men from the women.

VMI and the U.S. Justice Department have been skirmishing in court since 1989 over the Lexington school's males-only admission policies. The Justice Department seemed to have the advantage in some earlier rounds.

On April 29, a federal judge gave his OK to VMI's plan to remain all-male by setting up a publicly funded leadership program for women at private Mary Baldwin College in Staunton.

A Justice Department lawyer had blasted the plan as a "marriage of convenience" that wouldn't provide women with the same opportunities as men. But U.S. District Court Judge Jackson Kiser opined that "if VMI marches to the beat of a different drummer, then Mary Baldwin marches to the melody of a fife, and when the march is over, both will have arrived at the same destination."

The Justice Department is appealing the decision; this story is another one that will be around in 1995, and perhaps beyond.

Total points: 179.

10 - TOUR DUPONT

Racing fans? Sure thing. Except folks in Western Virginia tend to follow Dale Earnhardt more than they do Greg LeMond. That changed in 1994 - at least for three days in May.

In 1993, the Roanoke Valley had bellyached that the Tour DuPont, the premier bicycle race in the United States, had bypassed it in favor of Lynchburg. In 1994, thanks partly to Roanoke City Councilman Mac McCadden, the tour wound through the Roanoke Valley - and made its second pass through the New River Valley.

Roanokers probably still don't know what the heck a peloton is. But they turned out in big numbers to whoop and holler as the cyclists crossed the finish line on the City Market. Months later, they still had enough warm memories of the Tour DuPont to rank it as the 10th biggest story of the year in Western Virginia, just barely edging out the partial funding of the proposed "smart road" in Montgomery County (which polled 142 points).

Consider this event a tour de force. Even better, it'll be back in 1995.

Total points: 146.

WHAT DIDN'T MAKE THE LIST?

Well, everything else. If you've still got your Dec. 11 paper, check the Horizon section for the ballot.

Keywords:
YEAR 1994