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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 28, 1995                   TAG: 9502280100
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BIG BOY AND FRIEND CAN STAY - FOR NOW

It may be easier to change the law than the top of the Star City Diner.

Bowing to public clamor, Roanoke City Council called a cease-fire Monday in attempts force two cartoonlike statues off the roof of the Jefferson Street restaurant.

At the recommendation of City Manager Bob Herbert, council agreed to ask the Planning Commission to consider updating the city's sign ordinance, which last was revised in 1982.

For now, Big Boy and his cohort, Downtown Joe, may stay.

Herbert said he doesn't know how long a comprehensive review of the ordinance will take.

The statues went up last week, prompting a ruling from Zoning Administrator Evelyn Dorsey that they are illegal.

The diner dominated an otherwise ho-hum council meeting. One councilman bemoaned the ``public outcry and uproar'' over the city's attempts to have the statues removed.

``This is not an issue of whether someone's right or wrong. It's an issue over whether someone's doing their job,'' Councilman Delvis ``Mac'' McCadden said, defending Dorsey.

Herbert said after the meeting that council's action doesn't mean the city won't go after other illegal signs.

``We are not going to stand back and say anybody can put anything they want on a rooftop in this period of legislative review,'' he said.

Restaurant owner Spanky Macher reacted with disbelief.

``No way! No way! Are you serious?'' he said. ``I think the citizens responded, and I think council responded. They've met me more than halfway.''

Macher said he won't add more figurines to the one-story diner's roof. But he said he plans to remove Downtown Joe and replace him with Star, a roller-skating waitress sporting a pink neon hula hoop.

Council's action doesn't necessarily forestall any future move against the diner. But it was clear from the meeting that city officials have had their fill of grief over the diner and don't want to revisit it.

``The public has already spoken on this issue,'' Mayor David Bowers said, noting that 85 percent of the people he's talked to side with Big Boy.

``Everybody wants to have a lot of synergy and excitement in downtown Roanoke,'' Bowers added.