Botetourt supervisors were wise to fund new emergency radio equipment.

Even in a growing community like Botetourt County with increasing service demands, leaders are wise to pinch their pennies. But they also must recognize when it’s time to invest in core services like public safety.

County officials have made do with what Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle describes as an “antiquated system in dire need of repair” as long as possible. When one of the county’s four emergency radio transmitter towers went on the fritz, parts were borrowed from another tower when feasible. Sprinkle said he’s even ordered parts on eBay because the radio system is so old that new parts are no longer being manufactured.

Continue reading this editorial.

by Del. Dickie Bell

News of the pending closure of the Carroll County Virginia Virtual Academy is heart-breaking. A long-term solution has been in reach for the last three years.

Legislation I introduced would have created a funding model that would have capped expenditures at about 25 percent less than is currently being spent in traditional brick-and-mortar-style learning environments. It would save money for government, spending less for education while providing families choices in the manner in which students learn while maintaining Virginia curriculum and standards, including meeting requirements of the Standards of Learning tests.

Read more.

Bell, a Republican, represents House District 20 in the General Assembly.

by Sabrina and Lucky Garvin

The wildlife rehabilitation community in Southwest Virginia is full of fawns; we are at capacity. We are advised the Wildlife Center of Virginia also has no further space for fawns.

The reason is what we rehabbers call “kidnapped fawns.”

Read more.

The Garvins, of Roanoke, are directors of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center. Sabrina is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

Natural Bridge, Wikimedia Commons

by John McFerren Re: the editorial “Protect Virginia’s natural wonder,” May 30:

I agree that the Natural Bridge should be preserved for future generations; however, I found one remark very upsetting.

You mentioned the wax museum as a tourist trap when, in fact, the Natural Bridge Wax Museum was researched very carefully so it would be a historical connection to the Natural Bridge, and tell the stories, folklore and legends of Natural Bridge and the surrounding area.

Read more.

McFerren is the manager of the Natural Bridge Wax Museum.

By John Long

One thing about local governments — they generate a lot of extreme feeling, and little of it is positive. If a city council or a board of aldermen does a good job and things go swimmingly, the average voter tends to pay no attention. But when something goes wrong and that same voter has to swerve around a pothole or faces the prospect of diminished services, there is seldom much room for charitable sentiment.

I thought of this in the recent furor over pay increases for Roanoke City Council.

Continue reading.

Long is a Roanoke Times columnist and director of the Salem Museum.

Wikimedia Commons

New ownership will bring changes to The Roanoke Times, but our duty to our readers remains the same.

Debbie Meade brought vigor and integrity to Roanoke and its newspaper.

Debbie Meade leaves The Roanoke Times as its president and publisher at midnight today, some 30 years after joining the newspaper as a reporter in its New River Valley bureau.

Wikimedia

Natural Bridge and its surroundings are for sale. Virginia needs to purchase and finally protect this natural treasure.

by Barbara Hancock

My great-grandmother had only a few years of a one-room schoolhouse education. She smoked a clay pipe and had an outhouse in her back yard. I always like to remind my kids of this when they get too big for their britches. We come from down-to-earth, hard-working stock and, for that, I’ll always be thankful and proud.

I think it could be said that her great-great-grandson, Nathaniel Hancock, appreciated every single aspect that Franklin County and its schools had to offer. He took every opportunity to participate. He managed baseball teams and captained academic teams to victory. He competed in chess and track and led in the Accelerated Reader program five years in a row. He attended governor’s school and helped to organize a tutoring program in higher math. He was a lector at church and delivered firewood for the needy. He fished in Franklin County’s streams, and hiked and hunted in its woods.

Read more.

Hancock, of Ferrum, is a Franklin County High School graduate and the mother of one Franklin County Schools/ Roanoke Valley Governor’s School alum and two current honors students who participate in sports, the gifted program and band.