ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9601200003
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
Two weeks ago, we asked you to pick what you thought were the top news stories of 1995 in Western Virginia. These didn't, we cautioned, necessarily have to be the ones with the biggest headlines. Maybe they were the ones you were the most fascinated by. Or the ones you thought had the biggest impact on your life or your community. Or maybe just the ones you thought you'd remember most clearly a decade from now.
Regardless of how you judged the top stories of the year, 563 of you took the time to phone in your votes to InfoLine. Readers had many different ideas about what constituted the top story. Of the 95 choices we listed on the ballot, 63 garnered at least one first-place vote.
We let readers rank their top five stories, in order. Just like the college football polls, we gave five points for each first-place vote, four points for each second-place vote, three points for third, and so on. Unlike college football, though, there's no Bowl Alliance to sort things out from there. So here's what you decided . . .
VIRGINIA TECH GOES TO THE SUGAR BOWL
Sweet success for the Virginia Tech Hokies tastes a lot like pure, white cane sugar.
The Tech football team steadied after a shaky start this season and went on to a record nine-game winning streak, the Big East championship, and a spot in the Sugar Bowl, one of the nation's premier bowl games.
A last-minute defeat of the University of Virginia (and sanctions against co-Big East champion Miami) helped seal Tech's position in the New Year's Eve game.
Hokie fans have flocked to New Orleans by plane, bus, train and car to share the Hokies' time in the spotlight tonight against the University of Texas Longhorns. They'd been waiting for such a moment for years, and that helped make Tech's trip to the Sugar Bowl the readers' choice for the top story of the year.
Kickoff is at 7:10 p.m., with television coverage on ABC (WSET, Channel 13).
Total points: 355 HOTEL ROANOKE REOPENS
The comeback of the year belonged to a venerable old hotel.
The Hotel Roanoke has been a touchstone for Roanokers throughout the years. Generations of Roanokers marked the stages of their life there, at wedding receptions, honeymoons and anniversary dinners. Yet since 1989, the hotel sat vacant, as city officials, Virginia Tech administrators and business leaders first pondered its fate and then tried to revive it.
The Tudor architecture has long been part of the city's landscape and the fabled peanut soup part of the city's culture. Likewise, the hotel's darkened days said something about Roanoke, too - about the lower profile of the railroad which founded the hotel and then gave it away, about the rising influence of Virginia Tech, which took it over and envisioned the hotel as a site for academic gatherings.
The seven-year effort to reopen the hotel culminated on April 3. The patrons who returned to the refurbished hotel saw plenty they recognized - the same ornate lobby, for instance. They also saw plenty of additions, most notably the adjacent Conference Center and the spectacular (but still unnamed) pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks, linking the hotel with the City Market. By year's end, the hotel's comeback marked another stage, when it secured a coveted four-diamond rating from the American Automobile Association.
Total points: 324 NEW YEAR'S DAY KILLINGS
Just three hours into 1995, it became clear that Roanoke's nationally recognized low murder rate for the prior year was history.
A drunken New Year's party in an Old Southwest carriage house apartment was broken up by gunfire, leaving five people dead - Dale Arnold, 36; Carl Stroop, 42; Daniel Mason, 47; Susan Hutchinson, 44; and Cynthia LaPrade, 43.
When police caught up with 27-year-old Robert M. May half a day later, the alcoholic house painter admitted to shooting all five in what started as a petty argument about which branch of the military, the Navy or the Marines, was tougher.
May claimed self-defense, but pleaded no contest in July to charges of capital and first-degree murder. Prosecutors sought a death sentence - which would have made May the only Roanoke defendant on Virginia's death row - but Judge Clifford Weckstein sentenced him to five life terms plus 28 years, with no chance of parole.
In late December, May was being held at the Powhatan Correctional Center's reception and classification unit, where state officials will determine which prison will be his home for life.
Total points: 314
GENERAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
Mid-term elections for the General Assembly don't usually generate much excitement.
But 1995 was no ordinary year. This season's legislative elections were virtually unrecognizable from those in years past. They were more partisan, more expensive - and perhaps, more important - than ever before.
Republicans set the tone. They'd been steadily edging close to parity with Democrats in the General Assembly and saw 1995 as the year they'd crack the Democrats' century-long hold on the legislature. They recruited candidates in districts that hadn't seen a GOP challenger in years. They rallied behind Gov. George Allen, who audaciously declared the 1995 races to be a referendum on his conservative policies. And then they followed up with a big-bucks campaign that saw the amount of money spent on races across the state more than double to $20 million. Roanoke millionaires Edward and Peter Via did their part to drive up the cost, plunking down an unprecedented $211,000 for various Republican candidates and causes.
Western Virginia turned out to be a prime battleground: Allen and Co. targeted House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell of Roanoke County as "the chief obstructionist," sending in a small army of Cabinet secretaries and other officials to campaign for challenger Trixie Averill. Theirs wound up as the most expensive House race in state history. Elsewhere, the GOP mounted strong challenges to Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum of Roanoke, Del. Jim Shuler of Blacksburg and state Sen. Madison Marye of Shawsville.
For all that commotion, though, not much changed. The party line-up in the House didn't budge; the GOP did gain two seats in the Senate to manage a tie. Only one incumbent in Western Virginia lost - state Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, was ousted by Roanoke Vice Mayor John Edwards. That's the fourth time in the past five elections the Roanoke Valley's seat in the Senate has changed hands.
Total points: 225
APCO POWER LINE
1995 saw a few sparks fly in the continuing battle over Apco's proposed 765,000-volt power line.
A federal judge threw out the first of what will probably be many lawsuits filed in the controversy. This one was brought by New River Valley landowners against the U.S. Forest Service, but the judge said the opponents had to wait until the agency issued its long-awaited draft environmental impact statement before suing.
As for the report, the Forest Service delayed it twice, once in February and again in September. The latest target date is April.
In the meantime, the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests got a new supervisor. Bill Damon replaced Joy Berg, who had come under increasing fire from power line foes for her handling of the long-delayed report. One of Damon's first priorities when he took over in June was to meet with everyone involved in the power-line fight - from Virginia opponents to Apco executives and elected officials - to get a handle on the complicated, emotionally charged issue.
Then, seemingly out of the blue, the State Corporation Commission on Dec. 15 gave "interim approval" to Apco's proposal to build the power line through parts of Craig, Roanoke and Botetourt counties. It had been almost three years since the SCC had completed its public hearings, and no one knew when the three-person, semisecret commission would make a decision.
As a condition to approval, however, the SCC told Apco to submit additional studies on exactly how the line would be used, and alternative routes that avoid the scenic Sinking Creek Valley in Craig County, and the Carvins Cove area in Roanoke County.
Total points: 139
TECH STUDENT MURDERED
It could have been anyone.
That's what seemed to strike such a reactive chord in the community when news of Alexander DeFilippis' abduction and murder broke Dec. 6.
DeFilippis, a 22-year-old Virginia Tech student, was carjacked as he waited outside a Blacksburg convenience store for a friend.
His body was found a few hours later about 10 miles away. He had been shot in the head three times and robbed.
Authorities charged three Montgomery County men with capital murder and an assortment of other charges in DeFilippis' death after Giles County law officers arrested the men shortly after two convenience stores there were robbed the same night.
Benjamin L. Lilly, 27, could face the death penalty, as authorities say he has been fingered as the triggerman by the other two co-defendants.
His brother, Mark Anthony Lilly, 20, and their friend Gary Wayne Barker, 19, could face life in prison.
Total points: 137
MISS VIRGINIA LOSES CROWN
Andrea Ballengee was sitting on top of the world - or at least Virginia - after being crowned Miss Virginia in July.
But when some academic achievements that she claimed on a fact sheet were proved not so factual, her short reign as the state's most honored beauty queen came to an abrupt end.
Initially, the Miss Virginia Pageant board of directors stood behind Ballengee's claim that the embellishments were honest mistakes.
But two weeks after a newspaper article raised the initial questions, the board discovered a couple of other false claims by Ballengee.
During the pageant, Ballengee introduced herself as a first-year law student at the University of Miami. What the board confirmed, in fact, was that she had been placed on a waiting list.
That proved to be the final straw for the 20-member board of directors. They stripped Ballengee of her crown.
Four days later, they named Amber Medlin, the first runner-up to Ballengee, the new Miss Virginia.
Total points: 129
JUDGE THROWS OUT DUI LAW
In March, three months after a tough DUI law went into effect, Roanoke County found itself on the cutting edge of a legal dispute over whether police can temporarily seize the operators' licenses of suspected drunken drivers on the spot.
General District Judge George Harris ruled they could not, saying that punishing someone by taking his or her license and then trying him or her for drunken driving violated the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits someone from being punished twice for the same crime.
Harris dismissed a DUI charge at the request of Roanoke lawyer Ray Ferris, who was one of the first to raise the issue in Virginia. The defense spread like wildfire - causing the kind of technical confusion that lawyers love.
Judges across the state came up with conflicting rulings. The issue was not settled until October, when the Virginia Court of Appeals upheld the practice. The appellate court ruled that suspending someone's license for seven days is not technically a punishment, so the double jeopardy argument did not apply.
More appeals are sure to follow, but Roanoke Valley police have since gone back to enforcing the law.
Total points: 127
BIG BOY
What do Roanoke and Richmond have in common? Try this: Both cities underwent major debates this year over public statuary. Richmond wrestled with where to put a statue of tennis great Arthur Ashe; Roanoke confronted Big Boy.
Not your traditional, roadside, Middle American values Big Boy, either. This was a Big Boy gone bad: a Big Boy with a tattoo, an earring and peroxide-blonde hair. Worse yet (or, better yet, depending on your point of view), this Bad Boy Big Boy was a fait accompli, standing atop a building at one of the most prominent intersections in downtown Roanoke.
Restaurateur Spanky Macher touched off one of the most bizarre controversies of the year when he found an old Big Boy statue at a Georgia antique shop and hauled the thing back to Roanoke. A few artistic modifications later, Big Boy was standing atop his new Star City Diner at the corner of Campbell Avenue and Jefferson Street. City zoning boss Evelyn Dorsey promptly told Macher to take the thing down, citing a little-noticed ban on rooftop signs. Macher, naturally, refused - and proceeded to erect other statues on his roof. The standoff generated a small-scale parade of gawkers to cruise by the restaurant to catch a glimpse of the offending artwork - and a public outcry loud enough that City Council quickly caved in. The city's rooftop sign ordinance was put on hold; meanwhile, Big Boy still holds aloft his burger from the diner's roof, proof that sometimes you can beat City Hall.
Total points: 114
GAINSBORO'S FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BURNS
On a bleak Saturday afternoon in April, a Roanoke landmark was lost to fire.
Two boys, ages 11 and 16, almost destroyed the historic First Baptist Church in Gainsboro when they broke into the church and lighted two wine bottles filled with gasoline. The cousins later told investigators the younger boy wanted to "watch something burn." The church, built in 1898, was one of Roanoke's oldest and was said to be the oldest of Western Virginia's large black churches. Members whose families had been baptized and married at First Baptist for generations mourned the destruction. Since 1982, the congregation had worshiped a block away in a newer building. However, the spiritual ties to the older structure remained strong - and its loss was keenly felt, not just by churchgoers, but the entire city. The wounds opened by the church fire were made worse in the weeks to come when another prominent Gainsboro landmark, the old Claytor Clinic, went up in flames - one in a series of suspicious fires that plagued Roanoke this spring.
Some seven months later, that block of Jefferson Street is still fenced off because the remaining walls and bell tower were deemed a danger to passers-by. The older arsonist was sentenced to a detention center and the younger boy was ordered to receive counseling and fire safety instruction. First Baptist's congregation was scheduled to hear a report today on how the ruins can be stabilized and perhaps later turned into a public place. Jan. 7, in a second session, architects, a planner and a preservation historian are set to address the congregation. After members have a chance to give feedback to church trustees, they'll announce what they will do with the ruins.
Total points: 109
Staff writers Mary Bishop, Laurence Hammack, S.D. Harrington, Kathy Loan, Cathryn McCue, Madelyn Rosenberg and Dwayne Yancey contributed to this report.
SPECIAL MENTION: Republicans win big in Botetourt
The apple orchards of Botetourt County are fast giving way to subdivisions. With the suburban march across the Botetourt countryside comes, well, suburbanites. And suburbanites tend to vote Republican. In 1995, the county's demographic changes made themselves felt at the ballot box.
Botetourt County voters ousted two Democrats from courthouse offices and installed Republicans in their place - electing Joel Branscom as commonwealth's attorney and Jay Etzler as commissioner of the revenue.
To be sure, the twin Republican victories weren't completely because of suburban dominance of Botetourt politics; both Branscom and Etzler won solid victories countywide. But their campaigns were undoubtedly driven by the changing nature of Botetourt County.
After all, even most Republicans conceded the incumbent prosecutor, Democrat Rob Hagan, was a decent fellow who hadn't really done anything wrong. It's just that Branscom was so well-known from his years as an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Roanoke, where he was usually found prosecuting high-profile cases. Hagan was a likable chap from Fincastle who wore bow ties; Branscom, by contrast, was the big-city glamour boy. He was simply better known, especially to the Roanoke-bound commuters who constitute the bulk of Botetourt's population.
In some ways, Etzler's victory may be even more telling. He was no celebrity; indeed, in incumbent Steve Wampler, he faced the scion of a prominent Botetourt family. Yet, like Branscom, he won a landslide.
The Republican duo won another landslide, too - in our phone-in poll for the top stories of the year, where someone engaged in some old-fashioned ballot box stuffing. Apparently there's a Botetourt County Republican out there somewhere who either has a lot of time on his hands - or one of those computers that can be rigged up to automatically dial a number ad infinitum. Either way, almost half the votes cast in our InfoLine poll were for this story - many of them from the same phone call. And you thought phone banks were only used for getting out the vote on Election Day. If this were a real election, the registrar would probably be convening a recount, and the runners-up would be mumbling something about irregularities and whether it's fair for some folks to vote more than once. Instead, we'll simply put a Roger Maris-like asterisk beside this story and present the other top stories of the year, anyway.
Total points: 3,646
Here's what readers ranked as the top stories 1993
1. New state legislators elected.
2. The blizzard of '93.
3. First Union and other local companies downsizing.
4. Alcohol-and-drug raid at Franklin County Speedway.
5. Public outcry about drivers with suspended licenses involved in fatal accidents.
6. Roanoke's attempted takeover of Roanoke Gas.
7. Abduction and murder of an 11-year-old Rockbridge County girl.
8. The Rev. Elwood Gallimore, the preacher with two wives.
9. Salem hosts its first Stagg Bowl.
10. Roanoke gets a hockey team, the Express.
1994
1. Roanoke County cat ordinance.
2. Ice storms.
3. Apco power line.
4. Controversy over possibility of Virginia Museum of Natural History leaving Martinsville.
5. Family of four murdered in Vinton.
6. Interstate 73.
7. 50th anniversary of D-Day.
8. Salem baseball - a new name and new stadium approved.
9. Virginia Military Institute's fight to stay all-male.
10. Tour DuPont.
LENGTH: Long : 345 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Virginia Tech coaches, players and fans whoop it upby CNBafter a 36-29 comeback victory over UVa. It was Tech's ninth win in
a row and helped propel the Hokies into the Sugar Bowl. color MIKE
HEFFNER/STAFF
2. Andrea Ballengee (right) is congratulated by fellow contestant
Tracy Blizzard after Ballengee was named Miss Virginia 1995.
Ballengee was later stripped of her crown over allegatinos she lied
on her entry form. color MIKE HEFFNER/STAFF
3. Flanked by his attorneys, Ray Leven and Roger Dalton, Robert May
listens as he is sentended to five life sentences for the slaying of
five people in Roanoke. DON PETERSEN/STAFF
4. After finishing as first runner-up, Amber Medlin takes over as
Miss Virginia when Andrea Ballengee is forced to give up the title.
MIKE HEEFFNER/STAFF
5. Workmen repair a house that was damaged when fire destroyed the
historic First Baptist Church (background) in Gainsboro. Two boys
were charged with setting the fire. WAYNE DEEL/STAFF KEYWORDS: YEAR 1995