ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609030161
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: & now this . . .
If you've ever felt like you got the bum's rush from a Roanoke bureaucrat or council member, Saturday is your chance to get even.
The city is putting on a Citizens Appreciation Day at Valley View Mall. And one of the big draws is likely to be a dunking booth featuring city officials on the wet seat.
For a mere $1, you'll get multiple chances to dunk the official of your choice. All the proceeds will go to a worthy cause.
Here's a schedule of who will be the target and when: Finance Director Jim Grisso, 10-10:30 a.m.; Public Safety Director Chip Snead, 10:30-11 a.m.; Utilities and Operations Director Kit Kiser, 11-11:30 a.m.; Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt, 11:30 a.m. to noon. Councilman Carroll Swain, noon to 12:30 p.m.; Councilman Nelson Harris, 12:30-1 p.m.; Police Detective Rodger Hogan, 1-1:30 p.m.; Chief Deputy Sheriff George McMillan, 1:30-2 p.m.; City Manager Bob Herbert, 2-2:30 p.m.; EMS Supervisor Dave Hoback, 2:30-3 p.m.; police Officer Robert Shields, 3-3:30 p.m.; and police Officer Sue Camper, 3:30-4 p.m.
Other activities are planned at the event, which runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Among them are:
A basketball free-throw contest sponsored by Downtown Roanoke Inc. to benefit the city's mounted patrol.
A children's fashion show.
A park beautification contest. The city will send an army of volunteers to spruce up the city park that gets the most votes.
For more information, call the city manager's office at 981-2333.
- DAN CASEY
Joe Nash's hairy situation
Joe Nash, the Wasena community leader who may have lost a bid for a seat on the Roanoke School Board because of his long hair, actually got a haircut early this year.
It was during his race for City Council last spring. Nash had 14 inches taken off his long locks - but what remained was still long enough to pull it back in a pony tail.
More recently, Nash has considered a radical move into respectability - cutting the whole thing off.
"I've been wanting to cut it for a while, I just haven't gotten around to it," Nash says. "It's not exactly high on my list of priorities."
But now, that may never happen. Nash says he's in a bit of a quandary following controversy over his losing the school board seat.
" I can't cut my hair now - it's a Catch-22," he says. "If I do, I'm kowtowing to the powers that be. But if I don't, people will say, `Hey, he's a rebel.'''
- DAN CASEY
Case of the missing dress
Maybe Ace Ventura should become a dress detective next time. There could be a growing market for his services.
When Bonnie Collins heard about a recent story in The Roanoke Times about a white formal gown that was found floating like a balloon along a Charlotte, N.C., highway this summer, she thought there was a chance it could be her long-lost wedding dress.
Collins, who was born and raised in Franklin County but now lives in Florida, was married at Roanoke's First Presbyterian Church in late 1982. After her wedding, she took her dress to the Fabricare Center on Franklin Road to have it cleaned and sealed in a plastic bag.
She didn't look at the dress again until five years later when, in a nostalgic mood, she opened up the bag and got a surprise - the dress inside wasn't her expensive satin gown, but instead, a simple white, handmade wedding dress.
"I remember throwing it across the living room and crying," she recalled. Fabricare hadn't had any other complaints about missing wedding dresses, it told her, and ever since, Collins has wondered who has her dress.
The dress found in late June by retired Charlotte postal clerk Dwight Crump sounded like hers, Collins thought. It's a size 10 white satin gown with seven layers of crinolines, a popular style for pageants, proms and informal weddings manufactured by Mike Benet Formals between 1979 and 1985.
Maybe the person with her wedding dress was moving this summer and lost it on the highway, Collins thought. She hoped so. After losing her original engagement ring on a waterslide years ago, and then having her wedding dress switched at the cleaners, she thought it would really be nice if this dress turned out to be hers.
Alas, it was not to be. Collins' dress had long, lace sleeves and a train. The recently found dress has neither.
Collins still holds out hope that the switched dresses will be discovered, though.
"It's been 14 years," she said. "I've kept [the other dress] because someday pretty soon, somebody will probably open up the bag for their daughter to wear it, and they'll find out it's the wrong dress."
- RICHARD FOSTER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Nashby CNB