Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509290058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Since it was turned off Aug. 22, the clock has frazzled nerves among those competing to own it and added traffic on local fax machines. There are allegations that key parts were stolen.
A restaurateur, a sign company, a dead man's estate, a furniture company founder and a political group have been debating whether the sign - which resembles a scoreboard with lots of digits - will run again and who owns it.
Too bad, too. The debt is about $2 billion lower now than when the clock last operated. Those who pass by the clock at Jefferson Street and Campbell Avenue could have looked up - were it illuminated - and known that, though the debt still spirals toward $5 trillion, it hadn't been growing as fast as usual lately.
Roland "Spanky" Macher, on whose building the clock sits, said he wants it restarted. He considers the clock an attention-getter for his business, Star City Diner.
Problem is, he said, Kinsey Crane & Sign Co. took out the electronics when its crew turned off the clock in preparation for removing it. Macher said Kinsey Sign did not have permission to go on his property or to alter the clock. But he said the company has so far refused his demand to restore the clock to working order.
Macher demanded the return of the hardware by next Friday or, he said, he will buy new equipment and bill Kinsey Sign.
"I do not believe you would allow me to enter your property and remove the carburetor of your car without your permission," Macher wrote in a letter, of copy of which he released Tuesday. "The same goes for my property."
At this point, police are not involved.
Sign company owner Neal Kinsey said he had no comment on Macher's demand.
Kinsey has said he shut off the clock on orders from an attorney handling the estate of the late John W. Hancock Jr., founder of Roanoke Electric Steel and a longtime civic leader. Attorney T.L. Plunkett Jr. said in August the estate was being closed, and funding would no longer be available to cover ongoing costs for electricity and maintenance.
Hancock had the clock put up in 1993. He split the cost of purchase, which sources put at $26,000, with George Cartledge Sr. of Roanoke, Grand Piano's chairman.
With Macher having said he will assume the cost of keeping the clock on the restaurant, could Kinsey simply return the parts and turn the clock back on? That's unclear. Kinsey has said he takes his orders with regard to the clock from the Hancock estate. The estate, however, is no longer in control of the 12-foot-long device.
When word first got out that the clock was to be taken down and sold, the Southwest Virginia chapter of an organization that opposes excessive federal spending asked for the clock. Its wish granted, the Concord Coaltion signed the paperwork last week to acquire the sign from Cartledge and the Hancock estate.
"I've got official documents. They have donated the debt clock to the Concord Coalition," chapter President Jim Olin, a former congressman, said earlier this week.
To further complicate the matter, the political group agreed to accept the clock on the condition it be removed from the top of Macher's building. Plunkett, the estate attorney, has said statues of a waitress and other figures Macher also has on his roof detract from the clock.
But Macher argues he gained ownership of the clock when he bought the building in October. The structure was vacant when the clock first went up.
Macher notes that city officials have said the clock - which ran afoul of sign ordinances - was erected under a building permit. Macher considers the gift of the clock to the Concord Coalition invalid, because the clock is essentially an addition to his building.
"I'm not sure you can donate something that doesn't belong to you," Macher said.
Olin was trying Thursday to arrange a meeting with Macher. "I ultimately expect the clock will come off the roof," he said. The organization hopes to mount the clock on wheels for display it at rallies.
by CNB