Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WESTLAKE CORNER LENGTH: Medium
Minutes after the first road sign was planted in the ground to mark Franklin County's newest destination, Bill Rinn passed by it and pulled into the Duck-In Market to grab a drink.
Did Rinn - who was delivering some building materials - notice the sign?
"What sign?'' he responded. "I didn't even know it was there."
And others who work, shop and live around the commercial hub at Smith Mountain Lake now known as Westlake Corner didn't pay much attention either.
An employee at an ABC Store in Fairway Village Shopping Center across the street from the market was asked if the first bottle of liquor had been sold yet Thursday, Westlake Corner's first official day.
"This is Fairway Village," he said, looking perplexed.
When told about the signs, he said: "Oh, that's great."
Sweat dripping from his brow, Lloyd Brown of Burnt Chimney was busy doing some construction work on the outside of the Duck-In Market.
The Virginia Department of Transportation is putting up signs to officially designate the area as Westlake Corner, he was told.
"What? Will that get me a cup of coffee or something?'' Brown asked.
And he wasn't finished.
Brown, 49, has lived most of his life in Franklin County. The naming of the Virginia 122/616 intersection and the commercial growth around it - plus the heavy immigration of retirees to Smith Mountain Lake - have left a sour taste in his mouth, he said.
Gone are the days when father and son could ask a landowner at the lake for permission to fish from his property, Brown said.
"We'd find a nice little place, build us a fire and fish all night. And you didn't care whether you got a bite or not," he said. "But nowadays, you can't do that. You don't dare ask someone if you can cross on their land."
Mark Greer, who manages the market and was helping Brown, said a lot of people have been talking about the controversy that exploded over what to name what is now Westlake Corner.
The name was chosen after years of debate - sometimes heated - among many who live and work at the lake.
"People have been talking about it because it's funny and it's ridiculous," Greer said. "I've been joking that if we keep it up, we'll be in the news just as much as Boones Mill."
But now that Westlake Corner is an official place, could the name draw additional business to the Duck-In Market?
"I don't think people are going to stop to get some gas and something to drink because this is Westlake Corner," he said. "To be honest, I think people are just glad this whole thing is over with."
Next to the market is the Smith Mountain Lake branch of Central Fidelity bank.
Tellers at the bank said they didn't know the signs were being put up, and a bank official said there had been no discussion about changing the branch's name or its letterhead to include Westlake Corner.
Ruth Owney lives down the road from the bank. She said it's nice to finally have a name for the area, but said she's been more impressed with several other changes at the lake recently: 911 street addresses and road signs have been put in place, and toll-free calling from the lake to Roanoke went into effect Tuesday.
The ongoing changes were a subject taken up by Dick Mailer, a lake resident who was shopping at Fairway Village.
Mailer, a retiree from New Jersey who has lived on the lake for eight years, said he's reserving an opinion on the new name to see what the future holds.
He said he doesn't want the lake to change too much, because the rural Franklin County atmosphere and the area's affordability are why he moved here in the first place.
"They shouldn't let all those damn Yankees move down here," he said with a chuckle.
As Mailer talked, VDOT employees were busy putting up more Westlake Corner signs.
The first one went up on Virginia 122 just west of Virginia 616, near the Duck-In. Another was to go on the east side of the intersection on 122, and the third near a Dairy Queen, about a mile south on 616.
by CNB