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Church Cited for Storing Items for a City Task Force

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 12:01 CST

By Janette Rodrigues, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Mar. 7--CHESAPEAKE -- Corner Stone Christian Center members thought they were doing a good deed last fall when they let the city's Hurricane Katrina Relief Task Force store furniture and clothing on the church's loading dock.

On Monday morning, the city gave the Great Bridge church's pastor a citation, ordering him to move the task force property or be taken to court for storing the items in an "unauthorized section of the building."

"We told the task force we would be more than glad to help them, but they needed to clear it with the city so they could use the building and that area," Corner Stone Pastor Michael Blanchard said.

The task force dropped the ball, said former Mayor William Ward, who leads the city's hurricane relief effort. The task force was created by the City Council.

Blanchard, a task force member, received assurances from Ward last fall that the group would get permission for Corner Stone to use its dock.

"Some bureaucrat decided to cite the church," said Ward, who said he doesn't know what happened. "I apologize to the church, and I apologize to all the affected bodies and may God's work be done."

Ward acknowledged that he should have made a personal appeal to the City Council on the church's behalf instead of assuming that issue would be taken care of by city employees and officials on the task force.

William Brown, deputy fire marshal, said in a letter to Blanchard that his office was alerted by city building code official Robert Smalley that the hurricane-relief items were being stored in an improper place.

Chief William Hibner, fire marshal, said that the church's permit doesn't allow it to use the loading dock.

"It should have been very clear that that area was not supposed to be occupied," Hibner said.

The church has a predominantly black congregation and a rocky history with the city and the predominantly white neighborhoods that surround it.

After the congregation moved into a former Winn-Dixie supermarket on Las Gaviotas Boulevard off Cedar Road, members said they were subjected in 2004 to a campaign of vandalism of their cars, the church and anonymous threats from "Fighters for the Bridge."

Corner Stone members said racism was behind the threatening fliers and harassment from the city's code enforcement staff. City officials said they weren't targeting the church.

Last Thursday, the city shut down the church's popular indoor skateboarding program. The church's city use permit doesn't allow it to be used for such an activity.

Program organizers disagree. They said the program served 300 youth and children, who came from as far away as North Carolina and the Peninsula to use the facility.

Marie Williams, Corner Stone administrator, feels the church has been left high and dry by the hurricane task force members who assured her it was all right to use it as a relief clearinghouse for furniture and clothing.

At one time, she said, Hurricane Katrina evacuees came three days a week to pick out necessities from the collection of donations stored on the church loading dock. In 2003, the church also was the city's official pickup site in Great Bridge for residents who needed free bottled water and ice after Hurricane Isabel.

"The task force is going to have to come in here and move it because if they don't we will get a fine and summons because that is what they do," Williams said.

Monday afternoon, city spokesman Heath Covey said the task force was trying to find someplace else to put relief items stored at the church.

"And that will negate the violation," Covey said.

Reach Janette Rodrigues at (757) 222-5208 or janette.rodrigues@pilotonline.com.

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Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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