Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 21, 1995 TAG: 9504210078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This weekend, Frank Padget Memorial Park in Rockbridge County will come one step closer to becoming a reality.
Retired naval officer Tom Kastner came up with the idea for the park as a solution to what he saw as two problems: a monument to 19th-century hero Frank Padget sitting in obscurity along the James River, and lack of recreational access to the river.
A park in a more accessible location with the monument and a boat landing in it was the answer, Kastner decided. Others agreed.
Work on Kastner's brainchild will begin Saturday.
Frank Padget was a slave who died in 1854 while rescuing more than 40 people involved in a boating accident on the James River.
Although the monument celebrating Padget's heroism is one of only a handful honoring slaves in Virginia, its location makes it one of the most obscure.
The 141-year-old obelisk is erected on a plot of CSX Railroad land alongside the James River about a 30-minute hike from the nearest road.
A change in state law almost two years ago prompted Kastner to come up with the idea for the park. The law makes it illegal to trespass on railroad property and thus - because of its location - illegal to visit the aging monument.
Kastner pitched his idea for a park to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Department of Historic Resources and won their support.
But there was one problem: The site he found also is on CSX property.
So about a month ago, the Department of Historic Resources wrote CSX, asking the railroad to donate a 1.5-acre plot for the park and the monument. CSX has not responded.
"We're cautiously optimistic that CSX will respond affirmatively. Their main concern is safety and liability," said Bob Carter, a historian with the Department of Historic Resources.
Kastner, however, isn't one to just sit around and wait.
So when he got a call from a friend at Virginia Military Institute saying cadets were looking for a community service project, it didn't take him long to come up with the idea for the weekend's cleanup project.
"While the lawyers are arguing, I'm going to start clearing the site out," Kastner said. "I know we haven't got there yet, but as far as I'm concerned, it's just a matter of time before we do."
The railroad appeared to agree. Two weeks ago, CSX gave him a license to begin work on the park.
According to Phil Lownes, assistant chief of the lands and engineering division of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, even if the railroad rejects Kastner's idea, the monument will be moved.
"One way or another, we're going to try to relocate the monument. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has a landing on the other side of the Maury River, and if this doesn't go through, it will go there. It will be in a more public place."
The idea to move the monument isn't a new one. Several other people have tried it and failed.
But Kastner wasn't about to let that happen again.
"Tom is a driving force," Lownes said. "He is a power with people. I'm just trying to be helpful."
Lownes isn't the only one.
VMI is supplying about 230 cadets who will spend the weekend working on 10 sites along the river.
One will be what Kastner affectionately refers to as "Padget Park." Armed with hand saws, bush axes, shovels, rakes and trash bags, about 30 cadets and a group of students from Southern Virginia College for Women will spend Saturday through Tuesday hauling wood, chopping down small trees, and filling in potholes at the proposed park site.
Rockbridge County is supplying school buses to get the cadets there. Glasgow, Lexington, Buena Vista, the Forest Service and VMI are providing the tools. VMI's mess halls will truck bag lunches to the sites, and the VMI Foundation is footing the bill for gloves for all the workers.
The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, which is sponsoring the cleanup, is providing liability insurance.
"We've held some training classes," said Ned Riester, VMI faculty adviser for the project. "We're not just giving them a chain saw and saying go at it."
Lownes said crews from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the Forest Service and the town of Glasgow will be on hand to supervise and help with the work.
Kastner admits the effort is designed to put the pressure on CSX.
"This makes them pretty sure we're serious about this," Kastner said.
by CNB