THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501060179
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Eric Feber
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
They don't do windows either
Visitors to the drafting section of the city's Planning Department are not always as tidy as they should be.
Tired of cleaning up after those who use the office, one of the department's draft technicians, Tracy Bland, has posted printed signs to advise folks to put site maps and other charts back where they belong after they're used.
``Your mother doesn't work here, so clean up after yourself,'' says one sign.
``Drafting does not provide any maid service,'' says the other.
Have the signs done any good?
``Unfortunately, it has been in vain,'' admitted Rhonda Smith, supervisor of the drafting room.
``It happens in our layout area. We have a few work tables there, and people come in to use the maps and charts and just leave them. It got so annoying Tracy tried the signs, but they haven't gotten the message across.''
Smith said the same people who leave these messes in the drafting room probably wouldn't do the same at home. She figures the perpetrators of these dirty deeds probably think someone else will clean up after them.
But Smith thinks her department's shrinking work space may solve the problem.
``As time goes by, there will be less and less space in here. Then the problem may solve itself,'' she said. She got more than groceries
Several months ago Kathy Norris of Great Bridge and her mother were in the express line at the Food Lion store on Cedar Road.
Without thinking, she and her mom filled out an application for a Food Lion customer service MVP card as part of the Salisbury, N.C.-based food chain's ``Gold Lion Guarantee'' campaign. Norris only filled out one application, which also doubled as an entry in the food chain's sweepstakes.
Norris subsequently received one terrific Christmas present.
She was one three people who, out of 1,100 stores stretching from Virginia to Florida, won a brand new gold-painted Saturn SL2 car.
The car was presented to Norris by store manager Stephen Vinson at a Dec. 23 ceremony held at the store. Norris' parents, Betty and Bob Acra, and brother, Bobby Acra, were also there.
``Until the chain's vice president called me up telling me about the win, I had forgotten I filled out that application,'' said Norris, a Chesapeake resident who graduated from Great Bridge High School and Radford College. ``And I only filled out one - that's all.''
``Kathy Norris was the only person in the state of Virginia to win a car,'' Vinson said. ``She was very excited at the ceremony. She couldn't believe that she won out of 1,100 other stores.''
``This was a very wonderful Christmas present,'' she said.
It couldn't have come at a better time, she said. Before the win, she was driving a 1979 Mustang that was in great need of repairs.
``I had been thinking about getting a new car but couldn't afford one at the moment,'' Norris said.
There was only one minor frustration involved in winning the fancy new car. It was delivered on Friday, Dec. 23, with a full tank of gas but had no tags. The Department of Motor Vehicles office was closed until the following Tuesday.
``All I could do was drive it straight home and keep it in my driveway,'' she said. ``Over the weekend I just read the book (instructional manual) and sat in the car. But you can be sure I went straight to the DMV on Tuesday morning.'' by CNB