ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 13, 1997 TAG: 9701130067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
ROANOKE COUNTY'S PROMISE to convert a landfill into a community park was never put down on paper.
Charles Greer smoothed the wrinkles from a 23-year-old blueprint spread across his kitchen table.
The plan showed an elaborate regional park complete with an ice skating rink, horse stables and a show ring, baseball fields, a boat dock and marina on the Roanoke River, a restaurant, a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts and a nature trail.
Greer first saw the plan in 1973. City and county officials' search for a new landfill had zeroed in on a farm on Rutrough Road. He and his neighbors in the adjacent Mayflower Hills neighborhood were horrified.
The plan was produced at a meeting to show the community what would be done with the property once the landfill was closed. The last load of garbage was dumped there nearly three years ago, but Greer and his neighbors have yet to see the first sign of a park.
The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors will revisit the issue at its meeting Tuesday. The question of what to do about the broken promise has been raised and dropped with regularity in recent years.
This time, Greer is optimistic that something will be accomplished. However, the big questions - who will pay for it and how much it will cost - remain unanswered.
Before the land was sold for the landfill, farmer M.S. Thomas permitted neighborhood children - including young Greer - to play ball in one of his fields.
Losing a ball field was the least of the neighbors' worries when the landfill arrived. They didn't want garbage trucks trundling up and down Rutrough Road, which had been rerouted, creating a dangerous curve when an overpass was constructed for the Blue Ridge Parkway. They also worried that the landfill would attract illegal dumping along the road - a fear that proved to be legitimate.
"It seems like we've gotten the tail end of everything ever since I've lived out here," said Greer, a resident since the 1940s. "It was rough. We sacrificed a lot. I couldn't back out of the driveway on account of the trucks. The neighborhood really paid for the landfill."
In return, the community was promised a park, but that promise was never part of a contract.
Charles Osterhoudt, the attorney who represented Rutrough Road residents in a lawsuit to halt the landfill that went all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court, said part of the problem was that conditional zoning did not exist in the state in the 1970s. The plans for the park could not be made a requirement of the rezoning for the landfill. Still, Osterhoudt said city and county officials were specific enough about the park to create a moral obligation.
"There definitely were specific representations made by officials about the use of the land after the landfill was gone," he said. "Failure to deliver a park out there would be a breach of public trust in my humble opinion."
People living on Rutrough Road said they have always been skeptical about the promised park.
"No government facility ever carries through on their promises unless you hold them to the grindstone, and you have to get real nasty about it and kick up your heels," said Cecil Bollinger, who was president of the Mayflower Civic Club in the '70s.
"We were asking the same questions 20 years ago," added Donald Leffell. "`What kind of money has been set aside for this?' The best answer we could get was `It is proposed.'''
Local residents believe the obligation for the park passed from the Roanoke Valley Solid Waste Management Board, which operated the Rutrough Road landfill, to the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, which is in charge of the Smith Gap landfill in use today.
The resource authority made a written agreement with Bradshaw residents to provide $10,000 annually for community improvements. That agreement is a legacy of the bad feelings left behind on Rutrough Road, but it also is reviving demands to make good on those old promises.
Vinton Supervisor Harry Nickens asked that the issue be on the Board of Supervisors' agenda for its Tuesday meeting. Supervisors will see new plans for a scaled-down park and discuss how it can be accomplished.
Like his constituents, Nickens believes the estimated $100,000 for the park should come from the resource authority. Executive Director John Hubbard said his organization is under no obligation to finance the park because the city, county and town of Vinton never made a formal decision to create one. However, he said the authority would consider a request for funding from the county.
Hubbard said the money would need to come from a $6million account earmarked for engineering, leachate collection and other costs that must be paid on the old landfill for the next 30 years. He said there's enough money in that fund now, but added that unexpected problems can crop up with old landfills, and they generally are expensive.
The authority would not be asked to donate land for the park because the Rutrough Road landfill is too hilly. Nickens said the adjacent Explore Park is willing to donate land nearby for the park.
Greer and his neighbors are pleased with the plans for the smaller park, which calls for playground equipment, a picnic shelter with tables and an unlit ball field.
But even some Mayflower Hills residents say the park should not be built until a study is done to determine the number of potential users.
"It seems to me like it's a waste of money when everybody goes to Mount Pleasant park," Leffell said, noting that the number of children in the neighborhood has dropped over the past 20 years.
However, another resident, Louise Hunley, said the lighted fields at Mount Pleasant are always occupied by recreation leagues.
"The hometown kids just need a place to play," she said. "I would like to see a neighborhood park. We're not asking for too much."
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JANEL RHODA Staff. As Charles Greer endured decades ofby CNBlandfill traffic, he believed his patience would pay off with a
park. color. Graphic: Map by staff.