ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
A grand jury has indicted four officers of Virginia Rubber Recycling on a charge of storing too many tires without an adequate permit at the company's shredding plant in Rocky Mount.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The Virginia Rubber plant on State Street was destroyed by fire last summer.
Two of the men charged - Rufe Bynum III and Marcus L. Haley - are believed to be in Texas, and investigators are trying to serve them with the indictments, Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood said.
Bynum and Haley - both listed on documents as presidents of the company - have been investigated by state police and the Rocky Mount Police Department for months.
Also charged are Raymond T. Bishop, also listed as a company president, and Larry Boyd, the company's general manager.
Investigators have been in contact with Boyd, and Hapgood said Bishop is thought to be living in the area.
Questions have surrounded Virginia Rubber since the Rocky Mount plant went up in flames July 26.
The fire - caused by an electrical problem with a machine inside the plant - originally was called suspicious by investigators.
An investigation revealed that Virginia Rubber had a handful of executives, none of whom live in Virginia.
The company, just a little more than a year old, had several problems. It was charged with violating a conditional-use permit the town issued regarding the storage of tires,; some of its payroll checks had bounced, and it had to lay off several of its employees.
Documents filed with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality link another storage site, this one in Roanoke, to Virginia Rubber Recycling.
The warehouse on Cleveland Avenue Southwest was being used by Virginia Rubber as a tire dump site without proper permits, according to DEQ records.
Charges have not been filed against Virginia Rubber officials regarding the Roanoke site, but an official of another company that used the site, K&M Products, is facing a charge of illegally dumping tires.
A Franklin County hotel owner, who asked not to be named, received a letter late last year from Rufe Bynum. Virginia Rubber owed the businessman a $400 late bill. The letter indicated that the company would pay its debt and planned to rebuild the Rocky Mount plant.
Wednesday, the businessman said Virginia Rubber has yet to pay the bill.
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