Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's so cold in Frances Lamb's trailer, a skim of ice sits on her water glass when she comes home from work at midnight. She has to use kerosene heaters to stay warm, but is afraid to fall asleep with them on.
Yet Roanoke County won't let her get electricity turned on unless she moves to Montgomery County - 240 feet away.
Lamb moved her single-wide mobile home to five acres on the Montgomery-Roanoke County line last month. As far as Roanoke County is concerned, she's on the wrong side of the border.
County staffers are trying to get Lamb to move her trailer, and they're withholding a permit to get her electricity hooked up. Single-wide trailers are not welcome in the county.
Problems stem from the location of the property. Lamb got a permit from Montgomery County to set up her trailer on the Williby Road parcel in December, but she put it on an existing trailer pad that her father used until the mid-1980s. The pad is in Roanoke County.
So, Montgomery County voided her permit. Without one, Appalachian Power Co. won't hook up electric service.
``I really didn't think I'd live my whole life in Roanoke County and then be denied the comfort of electricity,'' Lamb said.
Roanoke County wants Lamb to move her trailer to the Montgomery County portion of her property, which she said she can't afford. She would have to clear trees, hire a mover, build a road and install a well and septic system, which already exist on the present site.
Jeffrey Scott, zoning administrator for Montgomery County, said he made it clear to Lamb that her trailer would have to be on the Montgomery County side of the property when he issued the permit. Lamb counters that Montgomery knew the trailer pad was in Roanoke County, but issued the permit anyway.
Roanoke County doesn't want to take her to court and put her out on the street, Planning Director Terry Harrington said, so denying her electricity was the only way to give her "an incentive to work with us."
But Lamb's not budging.
``This is my home I worked for,'' said the 59-year-old special care aide at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. ``I want to live in my home, not my kids' home."
So as temperatures dip to where puddles freeze, Lamb lives without heat.
Lamb brought her plight to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors' attention Tuesday, but most were not sympathetic.
One supervisor suggested moving the county line and giving her property to Montgomery, where trailers are allowed. A change in county boundaries is ``paper-intensive,'' the county attorney said, but possible.
``We have a citizen who ought to some way be accommodated by the government,'' Supervisor Harry Nickens said. ``She ought to at least be given a temporary permit to get electrical service. We can adjust the property lines so all her property is in Montgomery County.''
Other supervisors worried that could threaten ``the integrity of the zoning ordinance'' or set a precedent that others living on the county line could abuse.
Lamb doesn't care about the integrity of the zoning ordinance or the precedent her case may set. Her concerns are basic.
``I need electricity,'' she told the board. ``I'm freezing.''
She said she raises her 8-year-old grandson, Jason, who has lived with a baby sitter since Lamb has lacked heat. He can't understand why he can't live with her, Lamb said.
But some of her new neighbors on Williby Road - including her brother - don't want a trailer next door, and they're pressuring Roanoke County to enforce the zoning ordinance. In fact, the county wouldn't have known about the problem if not for the neighbors.
Kathy Crawford, Lamb's sister-in-law, said it's not fair that other residents who want mobile homes must buy double-wides. She and her husband, William, are selling their house and are afraid Lamb's trailer will make that harder.
Another neighbor, Patricia Smith, said Lamb's mobile home doesn't bother her. Neither does Nickens' suggestion that the land be given to Montgomery County, which could affect other neighbors on the same side of the road.
``That's fine by me,'' Smith said. ``Our taxes would be cheaper.''
Williby Road has at least two other trailers and is next to the new regional landfill.
``You'd think we were taking it to the middle of Hunting Hills,'' said Lamb's daughter, Wanda Lorton.
Roanoke County Administrator Elmer Hodge asked the Board of Supervisors not to take any action without giving county staff a few more days to work on the problem. In the meantime, he said, Lamb could even stay with him.
He also suggested that the county might help Lamb move back to the land she lived on previously, a suggestion Lamb rolls her eyes at.
For seven years, until last month, Lamb had been living on her daughter's property elsewhere in Roanoke County. Under the 1986 zoning ordinance, Lamb's trailer was ``grandfathered'' on that site, but couldn't be moved to another site in the county.
Her daughter plans to sell, however, and the county said a trailer could remain on the property only if it was used by a member of the family who buys the house. It's part of the zoning ordinance that allows for ``accessory'' manufactured homes for the elderly and others to live near relatives.
So, Lamb moved. She can't understand why the county would want her to move back there.
To Lamb, she's caught in a bureaucratic labyrinth where the most obvious way out isn't possible.
``I don't care what county they give it to,'' she said. ``Just give me power so I can have my grandson back with me and I can live.''
Nickens wants to help her out of the maze.
``When we get so entrenched running the government that we can't take care of the Mrs. Lambs, we've got a problem,'' Nickens said after the meeting. ``But we'll beat the system for Mrs. Lamb.''
by CNB