ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
THE CONCORD COALITION has threatened the owner of a diner with a lawsuit if he doesn't give the clock back.
The owner of a downtown Roanoke restaurant has been threatened with a lawsuit for not giving a national debt clock on his building to a group that says it is the clock's rightful owner.
The local chapter of the Concord Coalition has tried for almost a year to seize the inoperative debt clock on the roof of Star City Diner.
Diner owner Roland "Spanky" Macher recently released a Sept. 13 letter to him from a Roanoke legal firm that said the clock's "owners" want to remove the device by Sept. 26, or "we have been instructed to institute legal proceedings to recover the sign."
The letter by lawyer R. Neal Keesee Jr. does not identify the owners, but the area chapter of the Concord Coalition has maintained that it owns the clock and wants to display it at rallies and other public events. The Concord Coalition is a national group that opposes what it calls excessive federal spending.
The $27,000 cost to buy and install the clock in 1993 was supplied by the late John W. Hancock Jr., founder of Roanoke Electric Steel Corp., and George B. Cartledge, Grand Piano's chairman. After Hancock's death, his estate attorneys last fall had the clock turned off and transferred ownership to the Concord Coalition, the coalition has said.
Macher blocked the Concord Coalition from removing the clock's body but said they got its electronic guts. He claims that the clock reverted to him when he bought the building, because the clock was attached to the roof and because city records classified it as a building addition.
The two sides have been at an impasse for about a year, with Macher unable to afford to buy parts he said he would need to restart the clock. Now it appears the case may be headed for court.
The lawyer who threatened the lawsuit said in his letter that Hancock and Cartledge leased space for the clock from the previous building owner - Boddie-Noell Enterprises Inc. of Texas - and that their successors may remove the clock whenever they like, under the terms of the lease.
Macher released his own letter saying Hancock and Cartledge fell almost a year behind in lease payments to him. He expressed doubt about whether he must honor the lease.
He said he will sell the sign, or allow it to be restarted on his building, but "I am not willing to have [the clock] just downright taken from me."
Keesee did not return phone calls Tuesday and Wednesday seeking his comment. Former U.S. Rep. Jim Olin, president of the Concord Coalition chapter, could not be reached.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB