ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, December 26, 1996            TAG: 9612260024
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SERIES: Whatever happened to...? - a look back at 1996 
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER


34 YEARS IN COMING, CURB ARRIVES IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

For 34 years, Geneva and William Johnson heard they would someday get curbing in front of their Northwest Roanoke home.

But it never was set in concrete.

Two weeks before Christmas, they finally got the curb and gutter they had sought from the city since 1962.

"I can roll my wife out here so she can go to church, can go shopping," William Johnson said of Geneva Johnson, who gets around in a wheelchair or with an aluminum walker.

Charles Huffine, Roanoke's chief engineer, said the Johnson's neighborhood organization, the Melrose/Rugby Neighborhood Forum, asked the city recently to extend a nearby curbing project so the Johnsons, at 1115 22nd St. N.W., could be included.

Geneva Johnson, in her 70s, thanks whoever's responsible. But she mostly credits God.

Not long ago, she said, Huffine wrote her that he didn't know how long it would take to get the curbing. "But they didn't know what the man upstairs would do," she said.

Without curbing to give her solid footing, she was having trouble reaching the family car. She sometimes slipped on the uneven ground or the mud that formed along the street when it rained.

"My husband had been driving up in the yard" - the only way she could make it to the car.

After Huffine's last letter, she said, "I just gave up." She refused to sign any more city forms, as she had done for decades without success.

"I said, `Lord, you know what I need.''' She prayed for curbing all through the years, especially after brain surgery and cancer made it hard for her to get around.

After a March newspaper story on the Johnsons, other residents of Northwest Roanoke said they had been pleading for curbs even longer than the Johnsons. One couple said they had been writing and calling city offices for 46 years.

City Council demanded better ranking of residents' requests for curbs, gutters and sidewalks. The city put into operation a new procedure, already in development, that targets streets in greatest need and keeps residents posted on their requests.

Council also appropriated extra money for curbs and gutters and started a cost-sharing option for homeowners at the bottom of the curb-and-gutter list who want to chip in and speed the process. Huffine said that option isn't available yet, and the Johnsons are not being charged for their curbing.

Things are getting even better at the Johnsons'. Daughter Francene Johnson won her parents a grant to have a ramp built from their front door to the curb.

"God's still working," said her mother.

Staff writer Dan Casey contributed to this story.


LENGTH: Medium:   63 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  NHAT MEYER/Staff. William and Geneva Johnson pose 

outside their home next to their new curb and paving. Without

curbing, Geneva Johnson, who uses a wheelchair or walker to get

around, sometimes slipped on the uneven ground, or in mud when it

rained. Two weeks before Christmas, they finally got the curb and

gutter they had sought from the city since 1962. color.

by CNB