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Your daily Letter to the Columnist — May 8, 2013

Note from Dan: The email below is by Kevin DeGidio, one of the parents of girl volleyball players mentioned in Sunday’s column about the former volunteer assistant coach at Salem High School now faces charges of possessing and producing child pornography. DeGidio attached four documents referenced in the letter, which I have examined. All appear genuine. Kim Martinez, head coach of the girls volleyball team at Salem High, resigned from that position Monday.

Dan,

This is Kevin DeGidio, I was mentioned in your article “When is Red Flag Red Enough?”

I thought your article was excellent and asks the questions that everyone should be asking. I know you must put the response New Revolution in Volleyball and Old Dominion Region Volleyball are making, but I am getting tired of them saying I am making false statements. Read more »

That’s Steve C, a regular here on this blog, on the newest portion of the Roanoke River Greenway in Salem on Saturday. I went back there and road it Sunday, too.

Along with a lot of other people, E. Duane Howard was out on the Roanoke River Greenway this past Sunday The weather, frighteningly warm for any January Sunday, was the only pleasant thing about it.

He walked from Franklin Road to Wasena Park and back. The asphalt pathway was jammed with people of all ages.

“It was the most crowded I’ve ever seen it,” Howard  wrote on my blog Monday. “Almost to the point of being dangerous, no not almost — it was dangerous. Couldn’t count the near misses of either myself of my dog nearly getting hit by a bicyclist.”

It’s a pity he wasn’t on the gorgeous greenway stretch in Salem I rode on my bike on that same day. You may not be aware of that because it gets much less attention. There were people on it, but it wasn’t crowded.

Our neighboring city opened its first short stretch of the Roanoke River Greenway in 2001.

Right now, it’s putting the finishing touches on a third leg of the project. Soon it’ll have a 3.4-mile-stretch of path along the riverside, uninterrupted except for a single street crossing.

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

A steep hill along West Riverside at the intersection with Twelve O’Clock Knob Road is the only uncompleted part of the new Greenway section. Salem officials are hoping the bridge workers are building here will be complete by June.

Photo by Justin True | Crop and spray paint added by Dan

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — Dec. 21, 2012

Note from Dan: Justin True says the entire sign was torn down Thursday night.

Vandals used spray paint to deface one of the four Blue Ridge Coalition of Reason billboards in the Roanoke area. The billboard on Virginia Route 419 at 1420 Lynchburg Turnpike, in Salem, facing east, originally read, “Don’t believe in God? Join the club.” But the word “Don’t” has been blacked out.

This billboard, along with the other three, was placed by the Blue Ridge Coalition of Reason (Blue Ridge CoR) with $3,500.00 in funding from the United Coalition of Reason (UnitedCoR), headquartered in Washington, D.C. The ad has only been up since Tuesday and was first announced Wednesday morning.

“This unfortunate incident shows just how necessary our message is. Prejudice against people who don’t believe in a god remains very real in America,” said Paul Hoyt, coordinator of Blue Ridge CoR.

United CoR has informed the billboard owner, Lamar Outdoor, of the vandalism and is arranging to have the billboard replaced. But it is leaving it to the discretion of Lamar to file a police report. Read more »

Jason Rollison | Wikimedia Commons

Allow me to draw you a picture of a scene that’s happening more frequently of late.

The setting is a high school gymnasium. It’s crowded with hormone-hopped teens eager for the annual homecoming dance, the first one of each school year.

Also in attendance are wary adults. They are the chaperones. As the lights dim and the deejay starts playing tunes, the chaperones’ eyes begin moving, and their focus sharpens. They’re on the lookout for a style of dance known  as “grinding.”

The best way and most tasteful way to describe it is this: vertical spooning — with the girl facing away from the gy — and lots of below-the-belt gyrations and mandatory touching.

“It’s pretty graphic,” said Salem High School Principal John Hall. “It’s almost a simulation of sex.”

The grinding went over like a lead balloon at the North Cross School homecoming dance Saturday.

A warning from the deejay prompted a minor exodus of students, perhaps as many as one-third of the 120 or so people there. One of them was headmaster Chris Proctor’s 17-year-old son, who sent his dad an unhappy text.

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

Daniel Case | Wikimedia Commons | Altered by Dan

Note from Dan: While on vacation with the family, I’m treating you to some columns that ran in the past year. The on appeared Nov. 22, 2011. Since the, the 2-cent surtax on meals in Roanoke has expired and the tax is back to 5 percent. Salem’s remains in effect for the forseeable future.

The wise solons of the small city to our west — Salem — are poised to enact a 2 cents per dollar increase in the meals tax later this month.

This will boost the cost of the best burger in the Roanoke Valley (my opinion) by a whopping 18 cents. That’s the “Black and Blue burger” at Mac and Bob’s Restaurant on Main Street.

Today, we should take note of the hue and cry that’s not occurring.

Salem’s restaurateurs are not appearing at tea party rallies, threatening to move their operations to Roanoke County, or otherwise slamming Salem City Council. There are a couple of reasons why. Read more »

Shot by Dan Thursday night at the 2011 Salem Fair

One favorite annual outing for the Twark family of Forest is a jaunt to the Salem Fair. They went every year back when Tom Twark’s older daughters were little.

And now that Twark and his wife have two younger adopted daughters, they’ve been making the annual pilgrimage once again. Like me, he considers the Salem Fair one of the most eye-popping people-watching experiences anywhere.

“We enjoy it, have fun and look forward to it and spend money,” he told me.

But this year Twark is having second thoughts, ever since marauding youths wreaked havoc for two nights in a row at a carnival outside the Roanoke Civic Center. The incidents were at the Drew Exposition a couple of weeks ago; the Salem Fair kicks off July 3.

“I cannot see putting my family in a potential disaster like that,” Twark said. “I do realize that anything can happen at any time, but this is risk no longer worth taking.”

I took his concerns directly to Carey Harveycutter, lord overseer of the Salem Civic Center complex and conceiver of the Salem Fair 25 years ago.

But before we get into what Harveycutter told me, let’s take stock of a few differences between Roanoke and Salem.

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

Shot by Dan Thursday night at the Salem Fair

Note from Dan: While I’m on vacation, I’m treating you to some previously published columns. This one ran July 3, 2011. Preparations are underway for the 2012 Salem Fair as you read this.

A few years back I invited a well-heeled friend and his children to join me and my kids at the Salem Fair. His face twisted into a scowl.

“Have you seen the people there?” he asked hesitantly.

Such elitist attitudes toward the 24-year-old Roanoke Valley institution are unfortunate but not uncommon and have been spreading in recent years.

The basic complaint goes like this: It seems as if every strange-looking bumpkin within 150 miles shows up at the Salem Fair. Mostly they come out at night, like vampires, except many are missing incisors (or other teeth).

They sport beastly tattoos, bizarre piercings and brightly dyed mohawks. Some men wear camouflage garb, even though hunting season is long past. Some women are clothed in tube tops or halters about eight sizes too small.

They are so unusual looking they might even get kicked out of the world-famous Texas Tavern, which serves everybody. Read more »

Daniel Case | Wikimedia Commons | Altered by Dan

The wise solons of the small city to our west — Salem — are poised to enact a 2-cents per dollar increase in the meals tax later this month.

This will boost the cost of the best burger in the Roanoke Valley (my opinion) by a whopping 18 cents. That’s the “Black and Blue burger” at Mac and Bob’s Restaurant on Main Street.

Today, we should take note of the hue and cry that‘s not occurring.

Salem’s restaurateurs are not appearing at Tea Party rallies, threatening to move their operations to Roanoke County, or otherwise slamming Salem City Council.

There are a couple of reasons why.

One was offered by Bob Rotanz, the owner of Mac and Bob’s. It has to do with the way Salem will spend the extra revenue.

Initially, the increase (from 4 cents to 6) will cover the debt service on bonds the city is selling to build a new South Salem Elementary.

After that’s paid off, the extra revenue will go into a fund for other bricks-and-mortar schools projects.

Rotanz’s three children have gone through the system. And he knows the needs that are there.

“If they keep it where the 2 percent goes to capital projects, rather than the general fund, I don’t have a problem,” he told me. Read more »

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Hey Boss, read this letter from a reader now!

Dan,

Your column in today’s (Thursday) paper is your best ever, and probably the best I have ever read in the RT!

On one level it was very humorous — I laughed from start to finish — while on another level it was very informative, especially the graphic display of West Main Street’s eateries combined with your allusion to the trans fats.

You just made our entire year’s subscription worth the money that we paid for it!

Ed Kohinke (former Roanoke County supervisor)
SALEM