ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
Angry at City Council's recent vote to forgive a $212,000 loan to Total Action Against Poverty for the Henry Street Music Center, a group of black leaders began a demonstration Monday outside City Hall.
They demanded that council undo its action and instead work toward giving the building, formerly the Hotel Dumas, back to its former owners.
TAP borrowed the money from the city and spent it on asbestos removal at the old hotel, which was renovated into the music center at a cost of more than $800,000.
The building was given to the community action agency in 1990 by the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Under threat of condemnation, the housing authority had bought it from Darthula Barlow Lash in 1987 for $24,700.
In recent weeks, the Lash family has said it wants the historic building back so it can be turned into a community center for black residents.
"It belongs to Mrs. Lash; they stole it from her," said Perneller Chubb-Wilson, president of the Roanoke chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "Council should reconsider their vote. That's what we're asking."
Chubb-Wilson led about 10 residents in all-day picketing along Church Avenue. Among them were a number of familiar faces: Evelyn Bethel, president of the Gainsboro Historic Preservation District Inc.; George Franklin, president of Rebuilding the Black Community and the Upper Loudon Avenue Crimewatch and Development Committee; Henry Craighead, a former local NAACP officer; Richard Chubb, former principal at Hurt Park Elementary School; Jeff Artis, an unsuccessful candidate for the House of Delegates and City Council; and Vernice Law, Lash's mother-in-law.
They vowed to picket for three days and to take their demands before council during Wednesday afternoon's meeting.
"There are some questions, if not about the legality, about the properness of government," Franklin said. "We're talking about a $212,000 unsecured government loan. I think a whole lot of things happened which may have appeared good then, but which didn't come off. These [council members] have an opportunity to correct some of the things they weren't involved in."
The signs the protesters carried slammed the city for deliberating about the loan in closed-door meetings, a practice allowed, but not required, by state law. Another sign criticized the lack of a ward election system. A third, worn by the Rev. Lenord Hines, stated: "We need a new city manager."
Bethel's sign said: "City Council robs from the poor, gives to the rich."
The pickets also were critical of two council members who serve on TAP's board of directors - Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt and Councilman Nelson Harris - for voting on the loan.
City ethics laws require council members to abstain from voting on matters in which they have a financial stake. But because neither Wyatt nor Harris is paid by the community action agency, they said there was no conflict.
Members of council said chances were slim that they would undo the earlier vote.
"At the present time, I say no," said Councilman Carroll Swain, one of two blacks on council. "That's $812,000 of taxpayers' money TAP has invested in that building. I just can't see us passing that over to a private individual. I really don't see reconsidering the vote."
The two-year loan was granted in 1990, although by most accounts, few people involved at the time ever expected it to be paid back. TAP officials in private protested that they wouldn't be able to pay it back. TAP had asked for the money as an outright grant.
Council in 1992 extended the loan for five years, then forgave it Oct. 7 over protests from some blacks.
"I think it's unfortunate," Wyatt said. "It was made as a political decision to put it off year after year. Somebody had to bite the bullet and clean up this mess. It was left to this council to do it. Now we're catching the heat for it. Nobody wanted to deal with this hot potato because of exactly what's going on now."
Ted Edlich, TAP's executive director, said he doubted TAP's board would vote to give up the building, even if council asks for that.
"I do understand the frustration over years of eminent domain that has been led by the housing authority," he said. "But I don't think the answer is to simply give the Dumas Hotel to the family for the price they sold it for. You're talking about a building that we have over $600,000 invested in being turned over to a family for $24,000. I have found very few people who think that is reasonable."
Edlich noted that more than 50 percent of the residents TAP serves are black, more than 50 percent of its employees are black, and several of its board members are black.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff Virgie Craighead (left) and Floraby CNBBraxton joined the picket line Monday in front of the Roanoke
Municipal Building. color.