Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990 TAG: 9006130349
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This time, it's a dispute over the house and farm he's leasing at the Explore Park.
Explore officials say the lease their former master builder has on the property runs out today.
Heard insists his lease runs through 1995.
What happens next is unclear.
"There is no contemplation of eviction at this point in time," says Explore project engineer Richard Burrow. Beyond that, he says there's not much he can say because it's a legal matter.
From fall 1988 until this spring, the colorful and sometimes controversial Heard was one of Explore's most visible staffers, taking apart and moving old buildings for the proposed living-history state park.
Also, since December 1988, Heard has lived rent-free on a farm Explore owns in eastern Roanoke County in exchange for looking after the property and feeding the buffalo his mother bought for the project.
But on May 1, the Roanoke Times & World-News quoted Heard confirming that the River Foundation, the non-profit group running Explore for the state, hadn't paid his company for six months' worth of work.
On May 7, Explore planners told Heard the foundation wasn't going to renew his contract, saying the project couldn't afford to continue moving old buildings.
The next day, records show, the state authority that governs Explore paid $214.50 in state funds to change the locks on Explore property.
"[Project director] Bern Ewert is mad at me, and this is his retaliation," Heard says. "He's mad because I have discussed a number of [financial] problems with various board members and also discussed some of the problems with the newspaper. Bern has a very strong policy against any member of his staff talking to board members."
Burrow, who oversaw Heard's work, says that's not so.
In any case, Heard and Explore are now ensnarled in a legal dispute:
Heard says Explore offered to lease him a former auto junkyard at the park site to use for storage if he would clean up the property. He says he was directed to go ahead and do the work - and has spent some $12,000 there. But the lease was never signed. Heard contends the work he did constitutes a common-law lease. Explore says it doesn't.
In December 1988, Heard signed a one-year lease, with a clause he says calls for an automatic, five-year extension, and moved in. But Burrow didn't sign the lease until June 13, 1989.
Heard claims the lease automatically renewed in December. Explore contends it runs out today.
This spring, Explore offered Heard a one-year extension; he turned that down. This week, it offered Heard two more choices, either a 30-day extension or an extension through September.
But Heard says he intends to stay put so that five years from now he can harvest the Christmas tree crop he's planted. He also claims Explore has offered him a "financial settlement" to buy out both leases. Burrow says Explore has offered no such thing, that it's simply willing to pay legitimate expenses Heard incurred in improving both pieces of property.
At this point, Heard is still living on Explore property and still feeding the buffalo.
This week, he was even out on a bulldozer building a pond.
by CNB