THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994              TAG: 9408110523
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: POQUOSON                           LENGTH: Medium:   62 lines

NASA EXIT REVISITS OWNERSHIP QUESTIONS MANY CLAIMS TO THE MARSHLAND TEST SITE WERE NEVER RESOLVED.

The NASA Langley Research Center is abandoning a model aircraft test site it has used since the 1950s, leaving 260 acres of marshland and longstanding questions about who owns the property.

Also unresolved is when the owners of the land that became the Plum Tree Island Test Site will be reimbursed for the space agency's use of it. As many as 100 people may claim portions of seven parcels identified on city tax maps, said John Mathews, acting chief counsel at NASA Langley.

Many of the boundary markers rotted away decades ago, and in some cases more than one person claims ownership of the same property. ``We're talking about land descriptions that go back to the 1600s, that refer to the old oak tree and the iron stake,'' Mathews said.

NASA is leaving Plum Tree Island in favor of the larger Wallops Flight Research Facility on the Eastern Shore.

The Poquoson site has been adequate for testing remote-controlled model aircraft that don't have engines, said Dana J. Dunham, head of NASA's vehicle dynamics branch. But newer, powered models require more space, she said.

NASA last used the Poquoson site in 1993. Its lease ends Sept. 30.

For several years, NASA paid landowners for the use of the test site, Mathews said. But an increasing number of leases led to conflicting claims of ownership in the early 1970s.

Those conflicts prompted the federal government to file a condemnation proceeding in U.S. District Court in Newport News in 1983, Mathews said.

As with any land condemnation, the government was ordered to compensate legitimate landowners for their property, although it was up to the court to determine how much. But the court never appointed a ``special master'' to examine land titles, meet with the landowners and present a recommendation.

Mathews said he doesn't know why the special master was never appointed.

``They've had it for nothing for several years,'' said G. Duane Holloway, who contends that NASA used an easement across property owned by his father, Robert S. Holloway.

Mathews said anyone who can prove ownership can file for reimbursement with the court. But the Holloway family is the only one to have filed a claim so far.

The test site, meantime, lies within a 2,119-acre area that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering buying to expand the adjacent Plum Tree Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The wildlife service has hired a private title company to survey the property and determine the owners. Joe McCauley, deputy manager of the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach, said the title search may be used for future negotiations.

Some residents oppose the expansion of the 3,275-acre refuge on the edge of the Chesapeake Bay.

``I have a serious concern they would try to come in under the condemnation NASA has imposed,'' said City Councilman Roger N. Messier.

But McCauley said the survey was not conducted for the purpose of condemning the land. by CNB