Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 16, 1993 TAG: 9303160251
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER and DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VINTON LENGTH: Medium
LANCERLOT IS HISTORY, OWNER SAYS
The hockey arena at Vinton's LancerLot that collapsed early Sunday will not be rebuilt, owner Henry Brabham said Monday."The ice hockey's gone," Brabham said. "No question about that. It was gone anyway, but this was a crowning blow."
Brabham wants to salvage the portion of the LancerLot containing a swimming pool, health club and restaurant.
Though the fitness club appeared to be undamaged by the partially collapsed roof, Brabam cannot reopen the facility until a structural engineer declares it safe.
The LancerLot has been dogged by design and safety problems since Brabham - a former Vinton mayor - built it in 1984.
Though no construction problems that would have led to the roof's collapse ever were discovered, the LancerLot's failure to meet building code standards has been the source of a running battle between Brabham and Vinton officials.
In fact, the town never issued a final certificate of occupancy for the LancerLot because of unresolved building- and fire-code violations. Temporary occupancy certificates were issued in October 1988, four years after the building was occupied.
Questions about the structural soundness of the health club were raised by a musician who played at a LancerLot dance in the summer of 1988.
"The floors began to shake and bounce and I was genuinely concerned for the life of the occupants and myself," Richard Evans wrote in a letter to then-Town Manager George Nester.
The complaint led Vinton officials to hire an engineering firm to evaluate the structural soundness of the three-floor health club. The firm discovered that the upper floors were designed to handle only half the weight recommended by the state's building code.
As a partial remedy, Brabham moved a weight room from upstairs to the ground level.
Richard L. Williams, an engineer hired by Brabham, concluded that new support columns were needed to shore up the second and third floors.
In June 1990, Nester instructed Brabham that three things had to be done to make the 76,000 square-foot facility comply with the building code:
The addition of vertical support columns and horizontal beams to increase the amount of weight the floors could support.
The installation of automatic fire sprinklers.
The addition of pipes that could provide firefighting capability on all three floors of the building.
"Our worst fear," Nester had said in August 1988, "is to have something wrong with the building and it would collapse."
Despite these fears, Vinton officials apparently failed to make sure that Brabham followed through with the needed corrections.
Acting Town Manager Bob Benninger could not find any records to indicate that the LancerLot floors had been reinforced.
Williams, the engineer hired by Brabham, said he had no recollection of the work's being completed.
It was unclear Monday whether Vinton officials would make Brabham add floor supports before he could reopen the LancerLot fitness club.
Roanoke County building officials say the roof collapse was caused by the weight of snow that accumulated on the southeastern corner of the roof.
The steel supports began to buckle Saturday night during the second period of what was supposed to have been the last East Coast Hockey League game ever played at the LancerLot. Sixty-three spectators and the Roanoke Valley and Richmond teams were evacuated without injury.
The roof collapsed three hours later.
County officials have declared the LancerLot unsafe. Brabham will hire a structural engineer to determine if the roof over the fitness center portion still is sound.
"I don't think anything failed," Brabham said. "Of course, the roof is designed for a certain load, and there was just more weight than anybody anticipated."