Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 10, 1995 TAG: 9504100015
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Virginia routes 122 and 616 meet just a couple of miles from the Halesford Bridge at Smith Mountain Lake.
The intersection has become the hub of commercial growth at the lake, and it needs a name, lake residents say.
But the process of finding one that's acceptable to all interested parties has become as lively as the sun dancing off a windblown wake.
The next meeting to discuss the issue is scheduled for Tuesday.
At a meeting March 29, it was decided that county Supervisor Charles Ellis would recommend to the Board of Supervisors that the intersection be named "Lakewood" - the name that received the most votes after businesses and residents within a two-mile radius of the intersection cast ballots.
Ellis hasn't had time to bring the matter to the board yet. And in the meantime, a group of homeowners who say they were left out of the process called Tuesday's meeting. It will take place at 9 a.m. at the Waterfront clubhouse, said George Barrow, the designated chairman.
"I'm going to take this as much down the middle of the road as I can," he said.
Ellis and everyone who attended the first meeting have been invited to Tuesday's discussion, Barrow said. Ellis, whose voting district includes the intersection, could not be reached for comment about Tuesday's meeting.
He called the March 29 meeting at Chestnut Creek Country Club for others to vote, and to tally the ballot count later. The meeting, which Ellis tried to keep low-key, turned into a spirited, and at times argumentative, debate of the name, how much of an area it should cover, what the name will mean 200 years from now, and a variety of other related topics.
The lightning rod at the meeting was Ron Willard, a Franklin County native and the most influential developer at the lake. Willard, who recently moved into a new office built at the intersection, believes many qualified people were left out of the process.
Willard said he likes the name "Lakeville." He also said the chosen name should cover more than the two-mile radius. His Waterfront development, where Tuesday's meeting will be held, is more than two miles from the intersection.
When a majority of about 20 people at the March 29 meeting agreed to the Lakewood recommendation, Willard said he would have none of it. Lakewood already is the name of a professional center at the lake, and Willard said the intersection's name shouldn't be repetitive.
He told Malcolm Smith, a lake resident who has been working for two years to bring the issue to a conclusion: "I will fight you tooth and nail on this before I will let the Board of Supervisors vote on this."
Barrow said Willard showed up at the Waterfront clubhouse after the Chestnut Creek meeting and informed a group of homeowners who were unaware of the process about the result.
"I think there's real concern that we weren't included in the balloting," said Barrow, who lives in the Waverly subdivision. "We shop up there at the intersection, too. It's as much a concern to us as it is to them."
Joe Wilson, a Chestnut Creek resident who attended the first meeting, said he doesn't plan to attend Tuesday's meeting.
"Someone missed the point here," he said. "All we were trying to do was name an intersection within a two-mile radius. Now, it's a big deal. I don't understand it. I really don't care what they name it, but I know some others who are mad about the whole situation."
Some people contacted about Tuesday's meeting live as far as eight miles from the intersection.
by CNB