ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 29, 1996 TAG: 9607290072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: & NOW THIS...
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on August 1, 1996.
Roanoke County officials declined to approve an electrical inspection
for James and Opal Martin when they attempted to obtain service for a
recreational vehicle. An article in Monday's & Now This package
incorrectly stated that American Electric Power had refused to provide
service to the RV.
It was news to some of its members when former Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor resigned as chairman of the Henry Street Revival Committee.
He cited medical reasons. The Baptist minister has prostate cancer, but wife Barbara says it was stress and a breakneck church schedule that led him to give up the committee.
"Doctors just told him he had to cut down on controversial things," she said. "He's just doing too much."
Chairman of the city committee for 12 years, Taylor was criticized by some black Roanokers for not getting enough public reaction to the proposed rebuilding of the once-famous black commercial district. Now the committee and its cohort, the board of the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority, are planning public workshops this summer and fall to talk about the plans.
Some committee members haven't been to a meeting in years.
"I lost enthusiasm because of a lot of the politics involved," said member Benjamin Hale. "I also never understood this business of closed-door meetings - not just from the press, but from people who were interested. I don't know anybody who's really enthused anymore."
One might be committee member Bruce Brenner, who's recommending that the committee be replaced with a body patterned after New Orleans' Vieux Carre Commission, which oversees the French Quarter.
- MARY BISHOP
Why it's called `travel trailer'
Bent Mountain residents who say they wouldn't even want a mobile home for a neighbor were a bit agitated when a couple tried to set up house there in an RV.
James and Opal Martin purchased a Fleetwood Prowler Travel Trailer in February and parked it on an 8-acre lot intending to use it as a weekend retreat.
"It's just a way to get out of the city," said Opal Martin.
They ran into trouble when they tried to rig up all the comforts they enjoy in their regular home in Southwest County. American Electric Power Co. balked when the Martins asked for electrical service, even though officials with the Virginia Department of Health granted a permit for a septic system.
"I think [health officials] thought it was a bit unusual, but they went ahead," said Timothy Beard, Roanoke County's deputy zoning administrator.
It turns out Roanoke County doesn't allow its residents to use a recreational vehicle as a permanent residence anyway, primarily because RVs don't meet the same fire safety standards as a mobile home.
Neighbors say they're glad the RV won't be putting down roots, but the experience has left them a little nervous.
"Who knows what's going to come down the road next?'' asked Seth Oginz.
- CHRISTINA NUCKOLS
Former DJ doing great
Robert Kennedy, better known to many Roanokers as WROV-AM disc jockey Rob O'Brady, is shocking nurses and doctors with his rapid recovery after a triple heart bypass operation Wednesday. The popular disc jockey from the '70s and '80s had a heart attack Monday afternoon.
"He's probably setting new standards for recovery at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital," said his wife, Sissy, who is director of rehabilitative nursing at the hospital. She said her husband's breathing tube was removed just two hours after his surgery, which is unheard of. Thursday night, he sat up in a chair for an hour.
"I'm thrilled," she said Friday. "I couldn't have been this optimistic a few days ago, though."
The 48-year-old Kennedy was having lunch at Aesy's Restaurant on Campbell Avenue Southwest, where he has been a regular for years, when he had his heart attack.
Sissy Kennedy said Eddie Joe Aesy called her at work and said "Rob-O isn't feeling well." He told her Kennedy was pale and sweaty. When Sissy and another nurse arrived, they quickly decided to call 911.
It turned out Kennedy had three 90 percent blockages in two arteries.
His wife expects him to be home early this week, but couldn't begin to guess when he could return to work. He was swamped by visits from old friends and new co-workers all day Friday, she said.
Throughout the 1970s, WROV-AM was the premier radio station in the Roanoke Valley, thanks in part to Kennedy's recognizable New England accent and popular remote broadcasts. Kennedy still works at WROV, selling advertising.
The ex-DJ was essentially healthy, his wife said, but some things are going to change at home, like his diet and how much he exercises. That's the cost of having a nurse for a wife.
"You better believe it," Sissy Kennedy said.
- MATT CHITTUM
Pete the cat gone again
Pete the cat has pulled another disappearing act.
As some Roanoke Times readers may recall, Allen Schmaeman spent more than a week back in March looking for Pete - a female shorthair whose name is pronounced "Petey" - before realizing she had somehow slipped into the home of Northwest Roanoke neighbors who were away on a Caribbean vacation.
Pete was very pregnant. Schmaeman spent agonizing hours trying to get permission from the police to break into the neighbors' home and rescue her. Finally, police located one of the neighbors' father, who took responsibility for breaking in and getting the cat out.
Pete gave birth to her litter a few days later. A happy ending to the story, it seemed.
But last week, Schmaeman was frantic again. Pete slipped out of his house about bedtime July 17. Schmaeman got up several times trying to find her and let her in, but there was no sign of her. "I said, 'She'll show up,''' Schmaeman recalls. ```She's probably just out roaming.'''
But Schmaeman hasn't seen or heard from her since then, he said Friday.
He's checked with animal control officers and stopped by the SPCA several times.
He hopes that maybe somebody has taken her in, thinking she's a stray (she's not wearing a collar).
He's lost other cats before. One of them, Tig, was hit and killed by a car a few days after Pete was rescued from a neighbor's house this spring. So Schmaeman can't help but think the worst has happened to Pete.
"I think she's gotten herself in a situation she can't get out of," he said. "That's just a guess."
- MIKE HUDSON
LENGTH: Long : 122 linesby CNB