Southwest Virginia Blogs

Lately I have been so caught up in the upcoming senate primary, I had just about forgot about town elections coming up. As far as I know, Clintwood does not have any competitive races. The mayor is running unopposed and I have not heard about the council seats.

In Glade Spring, just over in Washington County, however, there are some hotly contested races. A friend of mine down there says that the current council and mayor have allowed the town government to become corrupt. She says the media, however, have been reluctant to report on the problems in Glade Spring. She and others are now trying to fix the problem themselves by getting better people elected.

She sent me this letter that was sent to the editors of the Bristol Herald Courier, Roanoke Times, Washington County News, and the Abingdon Virginian this week.

Dear Editor:

Before Glade Spring residents vote May 2, it is important that they consider the impact that a property purchase has had on the finances and future of the town.

In 2003, members of the Town Council (including the three incumbents seeking re-election) agreed to pay $131,024.00 for property belonging to Bonham Oil Company. Documents associated with the transaction show, however, that the deed for the property sold at $109,500. So what happened to the rest of the money?

Town documents also show that $20,500.00 from the town attorney’s trust account was paid to James Crabtree, a current candidate for mayor, who handled the purchase for the town. In addition, Crabtree received one of the buildings and some of the land as well as a 40 foot right of way on the remaining property.

These facts represent a way of doing business that is not in Glade Spring’s best interests. In essence, the town purchased property at a highly inflated price (one councilman indicated that the tax value was a mere $87,500.) while awarding a windfall to a third party proctor.

To add insult to injury, the Town Council failed to provide public hearings on the deal. Members of the Council arrogantly ignored the public as they spent taxpayers’ money. Meanwhile, they have washed the town’s balance sheets in red ink while generously rewarding a single resident who now hopes to be the town’s leader.

Hopefully some of the newspapers will pick up the story and shine a little brighter light on the possible problems.

Does anyone know what state was the site of the first commercial coal mining in the United States? If you are reading this blog, chances are you should.

From the RTD:

Mining has been a long and important part of Virginia’s natural and cultural history.

American Indians mined different types of rock for making stone tools. In 1609, English colonists at Jamestown began mining and smelting iron.

Virginia is the home of the first commercial coal mining in the United States, established near Richmond in 1709. According to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, more than 30 different mineral resources are produced in Virginia today at a combined annual value of nearly $2 billion.

Coal mining in Richmond? I have to admit that caught me by surprise.

For some time now, I have been hearing about the “Litter Gitter” program. Now I see it and Dickenson County got a mention in this RTD article by Rex Bowman.

Bowman writes:

Litter gitters - that’s the unofficial job title for convicted criminals who, instead of being sentenced to jail, are sentenced to pick up trash along local roads. In 2003, Buchanan County judges became the first in the state to use litter gitters, punishing offenders by ordering them into the ditches in what officials called an “Assign-a-Highway” program.

Offenders are given a 2-mile stretch of road to keep clean as part of a probationary sentence. If they do a bad job, it’s off to jail they go.

The article goes on to say the program is spreading to other counties across the state.

This program sounds like a great idea to me and I am very pleased it originated here in Southwest Virginia.

This sounds interesting.

From the KTN:

The University of Virginia’s College at Wise has issued an open invitation to a celebration of Appalachian culture during an academic symposium on April 3.

“A Celebration of Appalachia: A Sense of Place” will include UVa-Wise faculty members providing perspectives on a variety of topics ranging from dialect to geology. Also, Roadside Theater’s Ron Short and UVa-Wise Chancellor Emeritus Joseph C. “Papa Joe” Smiddy will provide musical entertainment.

The symposium begins at 1:30 p.m. in the C. Bascom Slemp Student Center and is free and open to the public.

A detailed list of events and more information is available here.

I see that Kilo has the latest edition of the VBC up. Go check it out and see some of Virginia’s best blogs.

Today, Jerry and I attended the Bar Leaders Institute in Abingdon. Several interesting topics were covered and I met several folks I had heard a lot about.

Probably the highlight for me was meeting Robert Grey, ABA President, who gave an exceptional talk over lunch. Grey is without a doubt, one of the best speakers I have ever seen.

All of the other speakers and panelists were also good and informative.

Noticeably missing were fellow bloggers, Steve and Chad.

Via this RT article, I see that Virginia Tech went with a new unique tagline that turned out to be fairly common. VT ended up going with “Invent the Future,” which is also used by USC and UNLV.

My favorite and adopted by one of the Commonwealth’s best colleges, Emory & Henry, is “Increase in Excellence.” Here is the full Mission of Emory & Henry.

Republitarian has compiled his list of the “25 Most Influential Bloggers in VA.” The first time I looked, I was at number 13. Then by the next time I looked, I was down to 15.

If by the time you head over there to see who made his list, don’t be surprised if am down in the 20s and dropping.

P.S. What is up with everyone wanting to rank the Virginia blogosphere these days? When I see one of these kind of posts, I get that same feeling every kid gets in elementary school when its down to two people left to be picked and only one spot left on the team.

Shaun Kenney seems to think so and says “[t]here’s a bubble, and you get the feeling (at least in the Virginia Blogosphere) that it’s about to burst.”

I think he may be right, but I love seeing all the new Virginia blogs. During the gubernatorial campaign, it seemed like a new Virginia-based blog was popping up every day. Some of those have stuck around and others have faded away.

I guess this blog will stick around until (1) I run out of money to pay the hosting fees, (2) Y2K hits (a few years late), or (3) [insert act of God that prevents me from blogging]. Hopefully, none of those three will occur and I will keep plugging along.

The Bristol Herald Courier has a new blog called “BristolViews.” The blog is being maintained by the BHC’s editorial board.

In their first post, they introduce the blog and talk about what they hope to do with it.

Welcome to BristolViews – the Bristol Herald Courier editorial board’s blog. We want this to be Bristol’s virtual town square … a place where we can talk about the important issues of the day. We’re new to this, but we know what we hope will happen. We want to have a conversation; feel free to ask questions and make suggestions. We want to learn. We want to give you a voice.

It is always nice seeing a new media-blog and especially one devoted to Southwest Virginia (and Northeast Tennessee). I have added its feed to the ever-popular Southwest Virginia Blogs site too.

My little county, Dickenson, has been the subject of some attention in the blogosphere the last few days.

It started with this letter to the editor, which was also printed in last week’s Dickenson Star, from someone in Xenia, Ohio. The Ohioan painted a grim picture of Dickenson County’s future.

Kilo discussed that here and used the letter as a basis for calling for change. Kilo might be letting politics color his objectivity a little, though.

Jerry was not fooled by the numbers. He says although the letter’s author embellishes the data, “[the numbers] are still depressing and indicate that Dickenson County is on a glidepath to being Virginia’s first ghost county.”

For obvious reasons I hope Jerry’s prediction is wrong too.

Kilo and Jerry are both right about one thing, though, we have to start doing more in Dickenson County or face the inevitable consequences facing the county.

The good news is that I think folks here in the county are starting to realize something has to change and I would bet they will effect that change by electing a new Board of Supervisors the first chance they get.

Doug reports here that Daytona 500 winning Crewchief, Darian Grubb, is from Southwest Virginia.

Harvick finished a disappointing 14th place, but ran well at times during the race.

Rarely will two of one’s true passions collide. Nascar.com, however, has this article on Virginia and racing.

The article includes a nice bio of Joe Weatherly, a Virginian who grew up in Norfolk and made his Nascar debut in the 1952 Southern 500. In 1953, Weatherly was Nascar’s Modified champ.

In case anyone did not notice, Kevin Harvick will be starting 28th in this Sunday’s Daytona 500. His teammate, Jeff Burton, from South Boston, Virginia, is on the pole.

The RT reports here that Abingdon has been given the designation of this year’s “American Dream Town.”

Abingdon has won a national Internet voting competition for the 2006 American Dream Town designation, getting more than 20,000 votes.

. . .

The voting was done last year from October to December. Each voter could go to the American Dream Town Web site once a day to cast a ballot, so the number no doubt represents a lot of repeat votes by the same people.

Still, the competition was heavy. Judges screened three nominees from each state, for a total of 150 candidates.

I will have to admit, the time I spent in Abingdon was great and I almost went back there after law school.