Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503060021
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
A character in a Robert Frost poem said good fences make good neighbors, but Walter Beck II's reaction to a fence feud has landed him a criminal indictment.
A Floyd County special grand jury decided Wednesday morning that a word Beck painted on his roof facing his neighbor's house is a public nuisance.
``On or about November 1994 to February 1995,'' the indictment states, ``Walter Beck did create a public or common nuisance by writing on his roof the word `a[visible from the public road for a distance of one-eighth of a mile, which writing has caused motor vehicle traffic to slow down and stop on the public road causing lives and property to be in danger.''
Commonwealth's Attorney Gino Williams asked for the special grand jury because the county has no public nuisance law. Instead, state law says that if five or more complaints are made, the matter should be taken before a special grand jury.
The charge carries a maximum punishment of a $5,000 fine.
Beck is trying to decide whether he should immediately remove the word from his roof or argue his right to free speech.
``Is it against the law to write on your own roof?'' Beck asked Thursday.
Beck's home is off U.S. 221 on Virginia 641, near Check. It's a winding, gravel road in a sparsely populated area. He said there have been no accidents on the road because of rubberneckers.
In Beck's opinion, U.S. 221 is a bigger public nuisance, with its frequent car wrecks.
``Them big jets come through here, and I've noticed they've rerouted so they can see it,'' Beck said, grinning. ``But none of them's crashed yet.''
Beck said his handiwork was the culmination of frustrating dealings with a new neighbor who moved up from the Roanoke Valley and didn't continue a gentleman's agreement Beck had with the farm's previous owner.
Beck grows asparagus, and part of his crop was on his neighbor's land.
Beck said he offered to buy the small plot where his asparagus was growing after his neighbor began to put up a new fence. Asparagus takes three or four years to mature, and he didn't want to risk losing the 500 or so plants that are part of his 15,000-stalk crop.
Beck said his neighbor declined the offer but agreed to let Beck put up a gate so he would have access to the plants. Relations deteriorated, Beck said, when he found a lock on the gate. Beck said he took the gate down, dug up his asparagus and replanted them.
The neighbor, James S. Griffith Jr., said he put a lock on the gate only after Beck dug up the asparagus. Griffith said he found the gate left open several times, an invitation for his horses to stray.
Beck said he painted the offending word in letters some 3 feet high after receiving notice that he might be charged with trespassing if he went back onto Griffith's property.
Beck believed there was a more neighborly way to resolve the problem than threatening trespass arrest. Griffith believed he was left no choice.
``All I'm interested in doing is just living here in peace,'' Griffith said Friday. ``He's brought everything on himself. I feel like I was as nice to him as I could be.''
``I'd like to get along with him,'' Beck said. ``but too much water's gone over the dam.''
Griffith said the word is an embarrassment to other neighbors.
``People just think it's disgraceful,'' he said.
A school bus drives through every day, and the children see it, Griffith said. Word has got out in the community, and that has increased traffic on the road.
``There's not much that goes on up here. ... I believe they make special trips to see it,'' Griffith said.
``All I want is the sign gone.''
Beck said he had no plans to leave the word there permanently, and it will definitely be gone when he puts on a much-needed new roof.
The neighbors may disagree on what fueled their dispute, but there appears to be one area of common ground.
``I have to say he grows good asparagus,'' Griffith said.
by CNB