Richard and Delaine Newcomb of Troutville took their granddaughters Hope and McKenzie Tuck of Blue Ridge on a trip to the DC and Baltimore areas this summer. Here they are at the harbor in Baltimore.

Also featured is their other granddaughter Riley Goss of Charlotte at Myrtle Beach

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Here are links to the other vacation photos we’ve posted:

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The 3rd Annual Spooky Crawford Golf Tournament is scheduled for September 18 to fund scholarships for children and teens to participate in sports. Registration for the Captain’s Choice event begins at 11:30 a.m.followed by lunch at 12 noon and Shot gun start at 1 p.m. A 50/50, mulligans, red tees and door prizes are featured along with the longest putt, closest to the pin, longest drive and for a hole-in-one– Magic City Ford will donate a car!

The late, Paul “Spooky” Crawford of Cloverdale is remembered for his business– High Country Construction– and his fun loving nature which included a great fondness for children. “He could be a kid himself,” said his widow Lisa Crawford with a laugh. After his death in May of 2005, Crawford’s widow Lisa and friends established a Golf tournament to raise funds so needy children could participate in athletics be it cheerleading, gymnastics or travel and recreation sports. Crawford played football and was an accomplished gymnast. The scholarships have amounted to over $5,000 for the past two years and most of the funds are raised at the annual golf tournament at Ashley Plantation.

“We have had a couple of kids who could not have participated in our gymnastics program had it not been for the Spooky Crawford scholarship.” said Susan Powers of Botetourt Gymnastics Academy.

For information on registration, teams and hole sponsorships, contact Joe Applegate at 537-1291 or Lisa Crawford at 537-3601.

Dustin King of Fincastle has been traveling for a number of years into South America and most recently Mexico.

King in the gray t-shirt, is seated on the floor of the community center along with the UNC students and local people in El Gusano.

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VDOT public relations spokesman Jason Bond sent the following press release.

The speed limit along 4.2 miles of Route 460 in Botetourt County will increase from 55 miles per hour (mph) to 60 mph. Weather permitting, signs designating the new speed limit should be in place by Friday, Sept. 5.

Two sections of Route 460 in Botetourt County met the criteria for VDOT to consider a speed limit change as set forth in Senate Bill 1223 that was passed by the General Assembly in 2004. This law allows VDOT to conduct engineering studies on Route 460 to consider raising the speed limit up to 60 mph.

VDOT examined the alignment of the road, spacing of intersections, design speed and crash history to determine that 60 mph was an acceptable speed for the following sections of Route 460:

Botetourt County From To Length:

0.1 mile east of Route 1400 (Blue Ridge Bonsack Industrial Park Road)
To: 0.2 mile west of Route 659 (Laymantown Road)

1.2 miles
0.2 mile east of Route 659
0.5 mile east of Route 616 (Blue Ridge Springs Road)
3.0 miles

The traffic signal at Route 659 (Laymantown Road) is located between these two sections of Route 460. The speed limit will remain 55 mph at this signal.

VDOT coordinated with the Virginia State Police and local officials before the speed limit changes were finalized.

Boy Scout Troop 584 will be holding a yard sale on Saturday, September 6 from 7a.m. until 1p.m. It will be held at the corner of 460 and West Ruritan Road in the Bonsack area, near the new Kroger.

Starting at 11 AM, the troop will be selling hot dogs for a great price. Other baked goods and sodas will be available. Many families will be contributing to the yard sale.

Funds from this sale will be used to replenish the troop’s treasury and to help the Boy Scouts start accumulating money for next year’s summer camp and the National Jamboree in 2010. Troop 584 is Chartered to the Bonsack United Methodist Church and includes members from Botetourt and Roanoke counties.

If you have any questions, please contact Theresa McDaniel at 345-1001 Ext. 2233.

11:40 a.m.: Interstate 81 has now reopened. For more, click here.

Sgt. Rob Carpentieri, the spokesman for the Virginia State Police, is on site at mile marker 167 near Buchanan where six vehicles have been involved in an accident. The series of crashes began when allegedly a towed white SUV broke loose from a red SUV and went into the traffic in the southbound area. A tractor trailer jackknifed and the effect on traffic flow resulted in more vehicle involvement in the crash scene. The accident happened early this morning at dawn around 5:30 a.m.and closed both lanes of southbound traffic.

Three tractor trailers were involved as well as two SUVs and a car. One person, John Smith, 36, hometown unknown, was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries said Carpentieri. No word on the condition or identity of the victim. State Police say Interstate 81 southbound near Buchanan was closed for two hours early this morning. According to Carpentieri, traffic is still moving slowly as HAZmat crews have responded to a diesel fuel spill from one of the tractor trailers.

State Police are still investigating. Charges have been filed against the driver of the red Ford Explorer towing the white SUV. Mahobala-Rankishadrack Nasemola, 25 of Plainfield, N.J. has been charged with operating with no valid operator’s license and reckless driving.

In recent years, the State Police count of car crashes in the area between Exit 162 and Milemarker 176 has made the area one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the state with an average of about 76 crashes per year resulting $1,000 or more in property damage. VDOT has installed guardrails in the median in the past five years to counter accidents on one side of I-81 from carrying over into the opposing lanes north or south bound.

Last year the State Police said the number one cause of crashes in the area was driving too fast for the road conditions.

As of 9 a.m., the remnants of Hurricane Fay have wrung out nearly 8 inches of rain on Tinker Creek. Weather journalist Kevin Myatt filed a post last night which totalled up the previous 61 hours of rain. At that point, Tinker Creek had measured 6.76 inches. Since then, another 0.63 inches of rain have been measured there — for a total of 7.39 inches.

The total for Daleville now stands at 5.69 inches. Troutville is at 5.11.

But Buchanan hardly got wet at all — 2.04 inches.

To keep up with the rain measurements, click here. And Kevin will update his Weather Journal as events warrant.

So what’s happening in your part of Botetourt? Click “comments” below or email us a photo.

We had a previous weather post on August 27.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) also called “No Child Left Behind” results are in from the Virginia Department of Education and Botetourt County as a school division and all schools except Central Academy have passed the muster. Each year until 2012 school divisions nationwide have to pass by increasing percentage increments until every child passes the tests.

Last year Central Academy Middle School failed to meet the AYP in mathematics in a specific core group and this school year 2007-08 in the “other indicators” it was science. The school passed both English and mathematics this year, said Assistant Superintendent John Busher today.

“The school division intends to make an appeal by September 26 on some of the determinations,” said Busher from his office at the Central Office on Poor Farm Road in Fincastle.

Central Academy is one of two sites, along with James River High School, in Western Virginia that use the SIMS/CLC program from Kansas State University for content access.

You can look up specific information on each school in Botetourt County (or anywhere in Western Virginia, for that matter) on our Datasphere.

For a news story on schools across the region, click here.

Got an opinion? You can click “comment” below.

If you saw today’s sports pages of The Roanoke Times, you saw the score from last night’s varsity volleyball match-up between James River and Floyd County. (Unfortunately, Floyd won.) But you won’t typically see junior varsity scores there. However, you will here on The Botetourt View.

We’re pleased to report that the James River junior varsity squad defeated Floyd 25-16 and 25-18.

James River is in action next on Thursday at Alleghany at 6 p.m. Check back here for a report.

For more on James River sports:

* August 26: Webcast features video from James River- Lord Botetourt football game.
* August 26: Photo of James River band at Friday’s football game.
* August 25: Photo gallery from James River – Lord Botetourt junior varsity football.
* August 24: Photo gallery from SJ Carter from James River – Lord Botetourt varsity football.
* August 23: Photo gallery from Kyle Green from James River – Lord Botetourt varsity football.
* August 15: Photos of all the fall sports teams at James River.

For the latest on Lord Botetourt, click here.

As always, if you have news or photos involving teams or players from Botetourt County, you can share them at news@botetourtview.com.

The roster of the junior varsity volleyball team is below:

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The far right is the rain total in inches in Botetourt County for the past 24 hours as of 11:31 a.m. To follow the rainfall totals, click here.

Heavy rain in Daleville at 11:30 a.m.

The measurement gages are in the following Botetourt creeks and streams. Notice how different the rainfall amounts are through out the county:

GAGE NAME 24 HR

Tinker Creek 4.88
Daleville 3.88
Carvin Creek 4.04
Glade Creek 2.52
Troutville 2.92
Lithia 1.20
Apple Orchard Mt 2.48
Sloan Branch 1.40
Oriskany 2.56
Buchanan 0.88
North Fork 1.28

Got a weather photo from your part of Botetourt? You can share at news@botetourtview.com. Or click “comment” to share an observation.

For more on the weather, see Kevin Myatt’s Weather Journal.