David Eisenberg

David Eisenberg lives a love story. No, not a man-loves-a-woman kind of love story. Rather, a man-loves-a-place story. Eisenberg was driving through Botetourt a few years ago, and “I just fell in love with the place,” he said. He went back home to Long Island, called his daughter to check out her reaction — she was just finishing college and had no objections to his new love — sold his house and moved to Buchanan. He bought a car the right size so he can carry two kayaks on the roof, one for him and a second for whoever visits him, and settled in to enjoying his new life here.
The matter of how he would have the money to live on settled itself right away. Experienced in litigation from 25 years of practicing law in New York, he does legal research and writing for another attorney in New York. With the internet, cellphone, computer and all the other devices of modern life, “they let you do things you couldn’t do before.” That is, live in one place and work in another.
Eisenberg really enjoys working for another lawyer rather than having his own law office, too. “Most of the work I do comes from this one attorney who has me do a type of work I do better than him. And it takes away all the administrative part,” such as having staff. “My office now is in my lap top.”
Right now he’s busy figuring out what to do when this one attorney retires. But, he takes Thoreau’s advice. “I don’t want to be like him and live in the woods. But I don’t want to work so hard I miss my life. I didn’t want to wait until age 70 to live in the mountains and near a river.”
When still in college, he dropped out for a year to get married and work in a factory. “I hated it and they hated me. I was the college boy.” Then after his degree, although he thought he’d like to become a journalist, he turned down an entry level job at The New York Times and went to law school instead. “The single biggest mistake of my life.”
Practicing law did not keep him from his two great literary loves: the study of Greek mythology and the book “Born Free,” which he first read at age 4. He even has in the past two years taught himself to read classical Greek so he can read Homer in the original language.
Once for two years he taught constitutional law on the undergraduate college level as a substitute teacher, which he liked. But he has found that jobs teaching law to undergraduates go to those with doctorates in political science, not law degrees. So he has filled his desire to teach by writing editorial page pieces, some of which appeared in The Roanoke Times. Last year, he explained why, according to the Constitution, the Senate by law had to seat the man nominated by the governor of Illinois to fill an opening. As you remember, they eventually did so but not before a lot of political commotion.
Eisenberg also fills his desire to tell stories by writing fiction. He even wrote a screenplay for a competition in which he came in among the top ten.
But mostly he enjoys taking visitors, among them his girlfriend, on kayak trips on the James, driving his car up to New York, and European travel. He just go back from Greece, and has visited Corsica, Ireland and Italy, among others.
When you live a love story, however, you come back to your true love: Buchanan.

These avian beauties come out west of Fincastle on a regular basis. Have you any wildlife photos? news@botetourtview.com

November's around the corner, watch out turkey!

A dozen and half turkeys in this flock on the lookout for stray grasshoppers perhaps in the autumnal back drop?

Fincastle Preschool trick or treating in the town of Fincastle. A special thank you to all the local businesses. The 3-year old class. Photo #1 Bank of Fincastle; Photo #2 District Attorney’s Office; Photo #3 courthouse steps; photo # 4, Sarah Crain and Anna Crain (Pocohantas and John Smith)

Submitted by Nicole Crain

On Friday, Oct. 22nd, Botetourt homeschoolers traveled to Richmond to experience an exciting day of learning.  First stop was the newly renovated and beautiful Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  Here, students participated in a tour where they saw a variety of artists’ works representing numerous cultures throughout history.  Then, all went across town to St. John’s church where Patrick Henry gave his famous speech in 1775, “…but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” Thanks to an enthusiastic tour guide whose acting brought the event to life, all left inspired and humbled by the bravery of our Virginia forefathers.  Finally, a tour of the Capitol ended the wonderful day.

Pictured are members of Blugerman, Chakhachiro, Cohen, McKenzie, and Pearl families.

Submitted by Jenice Pearl

Front row: Dave Tickner Pt-time Town Manager of Fincastle, Blue Ridge Supervisor Billy Martin, Arthur Pendleton of Edward Jones, Donna Vaughn, Fincastle Supervisor and David Knicely, Chamber president surrounded by well wishers for the ribbon cutting.

The Botetourt County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting for Arthur Pendleton and the grand opening of his Edward Jones Investment and Financial Services branch located in the Clark building on 5 West Back Street Ste. 104 in Fincastle on Thursday Oct. 28.

Local officials including new pt. time town manager for the Town of Fincastle, David Tickner and Supervisors Billy Martin and Donna Vaughn and many well wishers were present for the ribbon cutting.

Arthur Pendleton of Edward Jones in his Fincastle Office.

The office number is 473-3640 and fax is  877-395-8194.

Christine Liana is the branch office administrator.

I-81 CORRIDOR STATES MEET IN VIRGINIA TO DISCUSS FUTURE CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENTS

As a pipeline of traffic running to and through Botetourt County and bringing  merchant and gas dollars, any news about I-81 is pertinent. VDOT has said 86,000 cars per day pass Exit 150 in Troutville.

Here’s the release:

SALEM – Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean T. Connaughton hosted a meeting of Interstate 81 corridor states to identify corridor-wide issues and discuss a long-term vision for improvements on I-81 on Thursday, Oct. 28.

The corridor states, including Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania gathered to discuss common transportation challenges and each state’s efforts to meet the growing demands for the movement of people and goods along I-81. The group also heard from speakers from the trucking industry, rail and freight, and incident management.

“The Interstate 81 corridor is a lifeline for the entire east coast. It is imperative that the I-81 states work together to pursue a multi-state approach for I-81 improvements,” said Connaughton. “By working together we develop a unified vision for the future of this important highway.”

Cabinet-level officials from each of the I-81 corridor states meet periodically to share information about each state’s efforts to make improvements along the corridor. In October 2008 the I-81 corridor states signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a seamless freight and passenger network on Interstate 81. The agreement formalizes the agreement among the states to coordinate their planning and federal advocacy efforts for improvements to the I-81 corridor.

–VDOT

Here are the pictures of Lord  Botetourt runners in the Blue Ridge District Meet. You can find the story here: http://www.roanoke.com/sports/highschool/wb/265434

Photos by Miranda Beck

The late Don Meredith loved to sit in his pick-up truck at the spot pictured here and conduct County business from his farm during his days as Fincastle Supervisor. File Photo Cathy Benson.

In a published release from Woltz Co, the farm that belonged to the late Don Meredith was auctioned off in six parcels on October 22.

BOTETOURT, VA — (Marketwire) — 10/27/10 — Nearly 540 acres of Botetourt County farmland sold for $1,258,950 Friday, Oct. 22, in an auction that attracted 40 registered bidders.

“We had strong turnout of bidders both locally and from outside the area, and in this case the local bidders prevailed. All of the successful bidders came from within 10 miles,” said Jim Woltz, president of Woltz & Associates, which managed the sale.

The property — known as Meredith Farm — was offered in six tracts, which went to six different bidders. “Bidders were allowed to combine parcels or bid on the entire farm, but in this case most of the interest was in the individual tracts. It appears that the local buyers had a greater appreciation of the value of the property and that they were seeking tracts convenient to their homes,” said Woltz.

The property is approximately 60 percent pasture and 40 percent woodland. It also included a house, barns, farm buildings and silo.

Coach Charlie Crawford sent us this info as an update to our story on the rec football team the Botetourt Gamecocks:

“We won our second round playoff game last night 28-6 against the North Botetourt Knights. We have the Franklin County Hornets in the semi-final game on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. This will be the third consecutive year that we have been in the semi-final championship game – maybe we can push through to the Super Bowl this year!!”

Good Luck players!

LBHS FFA officers

The Lord Botetourt FFA installs new officer team for 2010 -11 Serving as Student Advisor is Michael Lehman, Chapter President Josh Pinkard, Chapter Vice President Luke Sevison, Chapter Secretary Zach Dove, Chapter Treasurer Taylor Miller, Chapter Reporter Courtney Henderson, and Chapter Sentinal John Daniel. We are really looking forward to a sucessful year that is off to a great start. To date we have held a back to school cookout for all of the members to give them a chance to meet all of our new members. Attended the State Fair of VIrginia, Helped park cars for all of the home football games, and held meeting every tuesday morning before school.

(Photo From Left to Right Michael Lehman, Luke Sevison, Taylor Miller, Zach Dove, Courtney Henderson, Josh Pinkard, John Daniel)

The Lord Botetourt FFA is kicking off it’s annual citrus sale. Each year the LBFFA sells fresh Flordia Citrus. This is one of our largest fund raising projects for the year with the proceeds being used to provide opportunities for LBFFA members to attend and compete in numerous events throughout the year as well as supports our many community service projects including providing gifts to residents at local nursing homes, adopting angels off of local angel trees, and supporting toys for tots. Each year the community has made this a great sucess and we are looking forward to another great season.

We are selling the same popular varieties as in the past in both 4/5th bushel and 2/5 bushel sizes they include Seedless Navel Oranges, Tangelo Oranges, Hamlin Juice Oranges and Red Grapefruit. Each of these are $25.00 for the 4/5 bushel size and $15.00 for the 2/5 bushel sizes. We also are offering 4/5 bushel variety boxes one which includes Navels, Tangelos and Red Grapefruit for $27.00 or a 4/5 bushel box of Navels and Grapefruit for $27.00. In addition to these we are also offering Tangerines in a 2/5 bushel size for $20.00. If you are interested in placing an order see any FFA member or call the school @ 540-992-1261.