Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505190029
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELVIN E. MATTHEWS JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
May 2: In a departure from its usual locations - highways and malls - a Hardee's restaurant opens in downtown Roanoke with a decor of plants, fans and paintings by area artists. The building now houses the Star City Diner.
May 7: Roanoke City Council hires a consultant to formulate a plan to restore the First Street Northwest area, once a nucleus for black-owned restaurants, entertainment clubs, hotels and other businesses. The Henry Street Project, the former name of First Street, had been recommended in 1984 by Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor, who said council's action would help guarantee the success of the project.
May 8: The ABC television network announces that Cave Spring High School's students would be featured as part of a weeklong series on ABC's ``World News Tonight.'' The series focused on American teen-agers and included scenes from the school and the junior-senior prom at the Roanoke Civic Center.
May 15: Plans were devised for a neighborhood partnership study, Roanoke Vision, which would develop a new comprehensive plan and zoning regulations for Roanoke. The study used television programs, newspaper surveys, citizen workshops and public forums.
May 16: Responding to an appeal from Patrick Henry High School students, Roanoke school officials initiated a ``pilot study for the wearing of shorts.'' Only hemmed, knee-length shorts would be permitted, and only when the National Weather Service forecasts temperatures at 85 degrees or more, or on any day of exam week. Principals would have the last word on good taste.
\ 25 years ago
May 5: Hollins College students protested the shootings at Ohio's Kent State University and the U.S. incursion into Cambodia by blocking the main entrance to the U.S. Post Office station on campus.
May 13:The Fair Employment Practices Commission agrees to serve as Roanoke's recruiting agent to hire more blacks for municipal employment positions. Three days later, in an unrelated development, Samuel D. Clay becomes the first black jailer in the Roanoke City Sheriff's Department. ``It's not a new policy,'' City Sgt. Kermit Allman says. ``It's just a matter of not having qualified applicants. It doesn't represent anything new, so far as policy is concerned. I hire on the merit basis. I am proud of the fact that I've never yielded to pressure.'' Clay, he continues, was the first of three blacks to apply and qualify.
May 19: Ras Stevens Powell, 58, of Elliston, and his wife, Minnie R. Powell, about 70, staged a gun battle with police after robbing the Farmers National Bank in Salem. Powell, who was wounded five times and underwent surgery, died a few days later at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Salem Commonwealth's Attorney Charles B. Phillips announced he had no plans to charge Minnie Powell in connection with the holdup, because of the lack of evidence.
May 19: Councilman Vincent Wheeler announced that the city attorney was readying specifications for bidding on a franchise for a cable TV system in Roanoke.
May 21: The trustees of the Roanoke Valley United Fund, now the United Way, for the first time, voted to expel a member agency. The Roanoke Life Saving Crew was expelled for having a campaign to raise funds for a new ambulances without the United Fund's approval.
May 22: ``New Generation,'' a teen radio show airing on WROV and featuring representatives from Roanoke Valley high schools, signed off for the summer with no definite plans to resume broadcast that fall. The program, which first aired in 1955, tackled such subjects as alcoholism, drugs, abortion, birth control, poverty, racism, and the Cambodian crisis.
\ 50 years ago
May 2: Under orders from Capt. H.C. Ferguson, acting police superintendent, police dispersed lines of cigarette buyers. Officials at downtown stores that had been the scenes of daily queues said they would work with police and vary the hours of cigarette sales. May 9: World War I veteran Robert 0. Albert of Roanoke and Radford, was decorated by the War Department with the purple heart for a wound he received as a private first class at the battle of the Meuse-Arsonne in October 1918.
May 9: World War I veteran Robert O. Albert of Roanoke and Radford, was decorated by the War Department with the puple heart for a wound he received as a private first class at the battle of the Meuse-Argonne in October 1918.
by CNB