THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412160538
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Of mice and mayors.
Or, the chase is on at City Hall.
Secretaries, receptionists, clerks and at least one assistant city manager are a little busier these days.
They're running after mice.
On Wednesday, Nancy Woods, the mayor's secretary, was enlisted to pursue a mouse in the city manager's suite of offices.
The mouse was discovered feasting on a bag of instant oatmeal on the desk of Lillian Daye, a receptionist.
``Lillian wasn't going to go back to her desk. I was the only one brave enough,'' said Woods, who chased the mouse under the desk before losing sight of it.
Later, the mouse returned and ``ran back and forth'' across Daye's desk before Assistant City Manager Ronald W. Massie tried trapping it in a coffee cup.
``I was reacting to a crisis situation,'' said Massie, who will retire this month after 24 years of work for Norfolk.
Massie never caught up with the mouse. And, he said, it's not the only one infesting City Hall, which is plagued from time to time.
``This one was just a little guy, just as cute as can be,'' Massie said. ``The one in Jim's office is two or three times bigger.''
Jim is City Manager James B. Oliver Jr.
There also are mice in Mayor Paul D. Fraim's office; one was caught in a trap this week. It was disposed of by a brave clerk who wrapped the carcass in the mayor's newspaper.
It's gotten so bad that the city clerk's staff keeps a jar of stale peanut butter handy for bait.
It has a hand-printed label: ``Mouse Trap Peanut Butter. Don't Eat - It's Yucky.'' by CNB