Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 29, 1995 TAG: 9508290043
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If he does, the lighted sign likely will be plugged back in, to again flash the national debt at the city's most prominent intersection. Macher likes the sign, which accompanies three rooftop statues of a waitress, soda jerk and Big Boy character, and planned to get a legal opinion on the ownership question.
The clock was not removed Monday as planned from the Star City Diner building, because Macher figured out a way to stop the plan. By all appearances late Monday, it isn't going anywhere today, either.
To know why requires an understanding of the clock's history and a controversy that has unfolded almost daily since late last week.
Control of the clock has for some time appeared to belong to George Cartledge Sr. of Roanoke, chairman of Grand Piano and Furniture Co., and attorneys for the estate of the late civic leader John Hancock, because Cartledge and Hancock paid to put it up in 1993.
An estate attorney moved to flex that control earlier this month by retaining Kinsey Crane & Sign Co. of Roanoke to take the sign down. The reason: There will no longer be a source of money to help pay power and maintenance costs for the sign after Hancock's estate is closed out within a month. Cartledge wasn't consulted but said Monday he didn't care.
The first step was to unplug the sign. That happened a week ago, and it got some people thinking how much they might miss it. Meanwhile, the sign company made arrangements to get a crane downtown to remove it.
On Friday, the Roanoke chapter of The Concord Coalition, a national organization opposed to excessive federal spending, said it would approach Hancock estate attorney T.L. Plunkett Jr. of Roanoke to try to buy the clock and keep it on the restaurant. It calls attention to an important national issue, the group said.
The group hadn't received an answer to its offer by Monday night, but said offers of donations were pouring in to help cover electricity and maintenance costs that total an estimated $1,200 per year.
"I had quite a number of calls" from both friends and strangers, said Jim Olin, the former 6th District congressman who is chapter president.
The same day the group stepped forward, Neal Kinsey of the sign company decided to take the sign down at 7 a.m. Monday.
Macher, the diner owner, objected that he had not been notified far enough in advance and that the sign crew would be starting work the same time his business opens for breakfast.
Late Sunday or early Monday, Macher said he sent Kinsey a fax politely telling the sign crew to stay off restaurant property.
Macher said then it hit him: Since the sign sits on a building he bought in October, he may own it. There would be no need to buy it, and he could simply tell the sign company to turn it back on.
"It's an attachment," he said. "It's bolted to my building."
In fact when the sign first went up, city officials ruled that it was a building addition. Macher hoped to learn today whether that could mean the sign is his.
by CNB