ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 21, 1996 TAG: 9612230047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
To get an idea of what Tom Meloche, his family and friends have accomplished, it's best to speak with residents of the 1200 block of Kerns Avenue in the Wasena section of Roanoke.
The residents are the ones who lived near a reputed crack house, where constant, all-night traffic and endless noise disrupted their working-class neighborhood of neat homes.
They're the ones who called 911 hundreds of times over a two-year period, who rose up and visited City Council to protest the ruination of their property values and their peace of mind.
And they're the ones who watched Meloche and his friends put back together the green, two-story, vacant, foreclosed-on house at 1210 Kerns.
"It's wonderful," says Ann Sauls, who lives next door with her husband, Tim. "I feel like we've been delivered."
New owners were pleased
When Meloche, an electrical contractor, paid $28,000 for the shipwrecked structure, he wanted to resurrect it and sell it, as he had done with two other houses.
His wife, Virginia, was unsure. The damage - trash stuffed into the walls, bullet holes in the attic, one large, dead rat in the kitchen's ductwork, among many other things - looked too great to overcome.
Toward the end of last summer, she changed her mind. The place looked so good that she suggested they move in.
"That was kind of a validation," Meloche says, with satisfaction.
The house sports a big, new bath downstairs. New ductwork, roof, gutters, windows, siding and deck. Restored trim. Teal carpeting, kitchen counters that reflect the rug, and linoleum that jibes perfectly.
Black ceramic tile has been laid at the front door and around the gas-fueled fireplace. Upstairs, three bright bedrooms, a newly furnished bath and enlarged closets all say, "Make yourself at home."
"We are really impressed with it," says Joe Nash, the neighbor whose mad-as-hell-and-not-gonna-take-it-anymore stance ignited the area and finally put an end to the nights of turmoil. "Most people here take real good care of their homes, and to have one eyesore like that detracts from the whole neighborhood."
Meloche figures he has put $60,000 into the house, including the purchase price. He can't estimate the value of the labor, conducted on nights and weekends for months at a time.
Nor is he finished. He calls it "an ongoing project."
Tale has ironic twist
Ann Sauls recalls the summer nights when she and her husband shuddered at the goings-on next door. When brothers Eric "Nike" Jones and Jerome "Doobie" Jones were arrested for drug dealing last year, police said they had done their business in the Wasena neighborhood but not necessarily inside the house, where they often visited.
"You don't want to engage people like that if you can avoid it," Sauls says. "Even though we got very angry with them, our approach was to regard them with as much loving kindness as we could."
But they worried that they would be unable to sell their house, if they decided to do so.
"That was our biggest fear," Sauls says, "that we'd be trapped forever."
Now they feel free.
The Meloches moved to Roanoke from Brick Township, on the Jersey shore, in 1988. They lived in a house in Mill Mountain Estates, and they operated TM Electrical, a contracting business.
Their daughter, Valerie, is 15; their son, David, is 12.
The family planned to move over to Kerns before Thanksgiving, but then came an ironic twist: Meloche and his wife separated.
She and the kids spent a few weeks on Kerns. Recently, they moved out of town.
Tom Meloche says he will move into the house soon - which goes to show, I guess, that carpentry can be easier than everyday life.
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256, send e-mail to kenn@roanoke.infi.net or write to me at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB