THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 21, 1995 TAG: 9511210291
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EASTVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
For seven months, the shell road leading to Loretta Lewis' oyster shack on Plantation Creek has been barred and locked. Brown & Root refused to let her sons use the road, which crossed company land, to reach their workplace.
But on Monday, the big Houston company, which plans to develop a retirement and recreational community in Cape Charles, signed an agreement giving Lewis and her sons access to the creek.
``I feel so much better now, knowing the boys can go to work and use the road again,'' she said.
Lewis and her family lease most of the Plantation Creek bottom from the state to grow clams and oysters. With no land route to their dock, the watermen have been forced to haul their harvest by boat on a sometimes-dangerous trek out into the Chesapeake Bay and to Cape Charles.
Two days ago, she said, their boat nearly capsized trying to bring 55 bags of clams and six people through a rising wind.
The agreement with Brown & Root came as the result of a petition that Virginia Beach lawyer A. Joe Canada Jr. on their behalf in Northampton County Circuit Court. The petition said Lewis should be able to use the road because her family built it and has used it for more than 100 years.
No harm would come to Brown & Root if Lewis were permitted to use the road, argued the petition. But the watermen would suffer ``irreparable harm'' if denied safe access to their clam grounds, the petition alleged.
Brown & Root officials could not be reached for comment. Neither Lewis nor her lawyer knew why the company signed the agreement.
Monday's agreement ends one battle in what Lewis believes is really a war for the bottom of Plantation Creek. Brown & Root claims to have a king's grant that makes them the owners of half the creek bottom. By law, the state owns the land under tidal waters from the low-tide mark out, except when a valid king's grant or patent predates the state.
Lewis said Brown & Root wants to force her off her profitable clam beds.
``I think they've always wanted me off them,'' said Lewis. ``They've always told me they own them. But I rent them from the state.''
In recent months, Lewis said she has received threatening letters, has had tools stolen, and has seen her boat vandalized. Someone unscrewed the pipe to her toilet while she was shopping, said Lewis, and the resulting flood caused $12,000 in damages. She has not been able to live in the house for two months.
She doesn't know who has been harassing her family, but she's scared.
``When this is over I'm getting out of this town,'' Lewis said Monday. ``It's just not safe.'' by CNB