ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
A group of residents says it wants the Henry Street Music Center returned to the black community. And angry remarks the group's members delivered to City Council on Monday caused council to at least temporarily shelve plans to forgive a $212,000 loan that was used for asbestos removal in the building.
The 6-1 vote tabled a recommendation by City Manager Bob Herbert that council turn a $212,000 loan to Total Action Against Poverty into a grant and formally acknowledge that it won't be repaid.
The action came after three residents chided the city, TAP and the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority for the way the city and the community action agency came to own the former Dumas Hotel.
The chief criticism was delivered by Vernice Law, whose son and daughter-in-law, Wilton and Darthula Lash, were the last owners of the old hotel. The Lashes, who live in Fairfax Station, did not attend the council meeting.
Law said her family felt "frustration, disbelief and a sense of betrayal at how their property was forced to be sold to the city and the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority under threat of condemnation" in the late 1980s.
Her comments continued a theme expressed by residents who participated in a community workshop in August, when the housing authority's acquisition of city neighborhoods over the years was roundly criticized.
TAP took over the Music Center building in 1990 and has since sunk about $800,000 into renovating it.
Law said her aim is to get TAP to sell the building back to her family. Clauses the city manager added into the agreement forgiving the loan would prevent that from ever happening, she argued - a contention the city attorney disputed.
Law urged council to forgive the loan, but without the "strings" attached. One stipulation requires TAP to pay the city 26 percent of the music center's gross revenues for the next five years.
In an April 2 letter to TAP, the Lashes offered the agency $24,000 for the renovated building, exactly what the housing authority paid them years ago.
Ted Edlich, TAP executive director, said after Law spoke that TAP was not interested in selling at that price. He told council it could cost up to $500,000 to finish renovations on the music center's second and third floors.
Council made the loan while facing a deadline to accept a $600,000 federal grant it received to renovate the building. Shortly after the agency bought it, TAP discovered asbestos inside, which boosted the price of renovations by $212,000. The money lent to TAP came out of federal Community Development Block Grants the city receives each year.
TAP asked the city for a grant to cover the asbestos removal. City Council offered a loan instead, and Edlich said agency officials accepted the loan knowing there was little chance it would ever be repaid.
The motion delaying action on writing off the loan was offered by Councilman Carroll Swain. Siding with him on a voice vote were Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt and Councilmen Nelson Harris, Jack Parrott, William White and Jim Trout. The lone vote against Swain's motion was cast by Mayor David Bowers.
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