West of Fincastle the first light flakes dropped at 10:45 p.m. on Friday evening January 29. Cold temperatures brought a more crystal snow than the heavy, wet snow of Dec. 18-19 2009. The Botetourt View  made it out on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. to file these photos. Five miles west of Fincastle 11.5 inches total fell including another inch and half during the night.

Looking at roads that make intersection with US 220 south going to Exit 150,  it appeared that all side roads still had plenty of snow on them though a patch of pavement showed in the sunny spots. Catawba Road is not so clear yet, with plenty of snow still in patches nor are the roads in the Town of Fincastle in good shape, but US 220 the Roanoke Road was fine as is I-81 to Roanoke.

Most churches in the county canceled services this morning and evening. Whether Botetourt school children  go on Monday is iffy due to the predicted overnight cold temps. If anything melts today, it will likely freeze tonight!

At 5:30 a.m. on 1.31.10 the January “Wolf” full moon gave a luster to the frozen landscape below. Today Botetourt is white landscape and blue sky.

Got some  photos of your own?

Send ‘em to us:

news@botetourtview.com

U.S. 220 is perfectly clear this afternoon. The back roads I’ve seen still have snow on them — with patches of road showing through — but are passable, if you drive slow. There’s a lot of melting going on, which likely means a lot of freezing tonight, so beware of black ice in the morning.

What are the roads like in your part of Botetourt? You can leave comments below.

Do you have snow photos to share? Our mailbox is open at news@botetourtview.com.

You can keep up with the weather news on weather journalist Kevin Myatt’s Weather Journal blog. There’s also a snowcam in downtown Roanoke that’s pretty cool, too

The plows came through my back road near Fincastle around mid-day, but I’m not sure I’d call the roads “clear” by any means. There’s a lot of ice, still, under the snow. Some vehicles have braved the road, but not many.

What are the roads like in your part of Botetourt? You can leave comments below.

Do you have snow photos to share? Our mailbox is open at news@botetourtview.com.

You can keep up with the weather news on weather journalist Kevin Myatt’s Weather Journal blog. There’s also a snowcam in downtown Roanoke that’s pretty cool, too.

We have snow photos! From, um, the last snow, not the one bearing down upon us. But that’s OK! We love snow photos, no matter when they’re taken.

Richard Claterbaugh shares these two photos of the snowman and fort that Andrew Claterbaugh built. Impressive!

Do you have snow photos to share? Our mailbox is open at news@botetourtview.com.

And, while we’re talking snow, let’s point out that you can keep up with the weather news on weather journalist Kevin Myatt’s Weather Journal blog.  There’s also a snowcam in downtown Roanoke that’s pretty cool, too.

Colonial Baptist Church in Blue Ridge invites area pastors, deacons, lay leaders and men training for the ministry to the “Serving Together in Unity” Pastors’ Conference on Monday, March 1. The Pastors’ Conference is sponsored by Northland International University Graduate School and features speakers Dr. Les Ollila and Dr. Douglas McLachlan. There is no charge and lunch is provided.

R.S.V.P. by February 22 or contact the church office at 540-977-5683 or www.colonialbapt.org for more information.

Colonial Baptist Church is located at 221 Hillcrest Street just off Rt. 460W and Mountain Pass Road.

Submitted by Colonial Baptist Church

The Virginia Tech Lumenhaus, an innovative, solar-powered house designed, constructed, and operated by students and faculty for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, will be exhibited in Times Square in New York City Jan. 27-31 and was be featured on ABC’s Good Morning America on Thursday, Jan. 28.

The Virginia Tech Lumenhaus is a modern pavilion. Where most energy-conscious houses are closed with strategic openings to resist heat transfer, Lumenhaus has open, flowing spaces linking occupants to each other within the house and to nature outside. Inspired by the Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe, the north and south walls are all glass, maximizing the exposure to bright, natural daylight. The fully automated Eclipsis System, comprising independent sliding layers, permits a revolutionary design in a solar-powered house, while filtering light in flowing patterns throughout the day.

The Virginia Tech Lumenhaus employs a “whole building design” construction approach, in which all the home’s components and systems are designed to work together to maximize user comfort with environmental protection. Lumenhaus can operate completely self sufficiently, responding to environmental changes automatically to balance energy efficiency with user comfort. Sustainable features include the use of passive energy systems, radiant heating and building materials that are from renewable and/or recyclable sources.

The Virginia Tech Lumenhaus will travel to Madrid, Spain, to compete in the first European Solar Decathlon in June of 2010. It was one of only two houses from the United States to be invited to participate in the European Solar Decathlon.

Lead faculty on the Virginia Tech Lumenhaus project are College of Architecture and Urban Studies faculty Joseph Wheeler, associate professor of architecture; Robert Dunay, the T. A. Carter Professor of Architecture; Andrew McCoy, assistant professor of building construction; and Robert Schubert, associate dean of research, and from the College of Engineering, Denis Gracanin, associate professor of computer science.

Travis Rookstool of Buchanan was one of the lead College of Architecture and Urban Studies students on the project.

We have more on the solar house being exhibited in New York and Washington in this post and this post on the Blue Ridge Business Journal.

East Tennessee State University conferred some 1,300 degrees in two fall commencement ceremonies, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, on Dec. 19, and in an additional ceremony on the afternoon of Dec. 23. Both August and December graduates are included in the fall exercises.

Graduating student Sabrina Satterfield of Kingsport achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average during her undergraduate career.

In addition to awarding bachelors, masters, and educational specialist (EdS) degrees, as well as graduate certificates, ETSU bestowed doctor of education (EdD), doctor of philosophy (PhD), doctor of medicine (MD), and doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degrees on successful candidates.

The featured speaker was Dr. C.H. Charlton, pastor for 32 years at Johnson City’s Friendship Baptist Church.

The Distinguished Faculty Marshals for the ceremony were Dr. Yue Zou, recipient of the 2009 ETSU Distinguished Faculty Award in Research, and Dr. Amber Kinser, recipient of the 2009 ETSU Distinguished Faculty Award in Service. The Mace Bearer was Dr. Jamie Kridler, recipient of the 2009 ETSU Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching.

Cody Martin of Troutville graduated with a BS Engineering Technology.

Bad weather cancels a lot of fun activities.

Due to the impending winter storm, here are some week end cancellations:

No JRHS girl’s basketball games tonight or tomorrow night.

No winter Formal at LBHS Saturday Night. Postponed until Feb. 20.

JRHS Wrestling tournament on Saturday has been cancelled.

JRHS Key Club and Kiwanis Breakfast has been postponed to a later date.

If you know of others, you can leave them in the comment field below, or email us at news@botetourtview.com. (Note: The comment field may be quicker.)

This deer in Blue Ridge had been hit by a car

On the western side of the Blacksburg Road in Troutville, not far from Stevens Road a request has been made of VDOT to put a deer crossing sign along the road. VDOT engineer, Mike Collins addressed the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday January 26, 2010 during their regualr meeting. A complaint to Supervisor Steve Clinton had been made by a home owner who has buried five of twenty one deer killed in that area of the road since August 2009.

VDOT has removed the other 16 deer carcasses, Collins said.

The homeowner who asked not to be identified, said that it is a real hazard and some one is going to get badly hurt in a car crash because it is an obvious deer crossing site. “Some sort of warning needs to be posted. This has been going on or years,” he stated in a phone interview.

Notably Collins told the board that VDOT will look into the sign. He also told the board that VDOT carcass removal had been held up due to the snow depth and cold conditions, but they were caught up as of Tuesday.

Interestingly enough, dead deer carcasses in Botetourt are now removed to the landfill in Montgomery County for proper disposal, he told the board.