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What's better than a $600 IRS stimulus check? Maybe it's $10,000 in cash flung from a helicopter in Blacksburg on Black Friday.

The cash drop will coincide with the grand opening of the retail center along South Main Street on Nov. 28, 2008, representatives of First & Main have announced.

According to a news release, 10,000 $1 bills will be dropped from a helicopter over the shopping center at 10 a.m. The serial numbers of hundreds of the bills have been assigned to various prizes donated by local businesses. Those who collect the money may then visit retailers to check if they've won.

Stores began opening in the center in October. Several more are still under construction. A ribbon cutting is scheduled for Saturday (Nov. 22).

The following retailers are scheduled to be open on Nov. 28: Ann Taylor Loft, Blue Ridge Mountain Sports, Book-A-Million, Chocolate Spike, CLIX, Coldwater Creek, Elderberry’s, Henebry’s, Hibbett Sports, JoS. A. Bank, Leather Hous, Maggie Moo’s, On A Whim, Rack Room Shoes, Replay, Sake House of Japan, Sports Clips, Steger Creek, Talbot’s and Wireless Zone.

Similar cash drops have been reported across the country in recent years. Two Michigan children were injured in 2006 during a scramble for $1,000 dropped from a helicopter in conjunction with a minor league baseball game.

Police swarmed the area around Wall Street and arrested one person in 2002 when members of an unknown group protesting greed, homelessness and poverty dropped thousands of dollars in coins and paper money in the streets around the New York Stock Exchange.

-- Tonia Moxley

At a hearing Thursday morning in Montgomery County Circuit Court, former Christiansburg attorney Gerard Marks pleaded guilty to seven counts of forgery of public documents.

A pre-sentence report on Marks will be prepared, meaning a probation officer will put together a background report on him before he is sentenced. In Montgomery County, probation officers ask that a person's sentencing hearing be held at least 90 days from his or her trial so there will be enough time to complete the report.

As Marks' attorney, Mac Doubles; special prosecutor Joel Branscom, who is the Botetourt County commonwealth's attorney; and substitute Judge Ford Quillen of Gate City tried to choose a date in March, Quillen first suggested Friday the 13th.

Actually, the judge said, that might not be a good day.

No day is a good day for sentencing, Doubles responded.

Still, Quillen moved the hearing back a day to Thursday, March 12.

--Shawna Morrison

An empty storefront will soon become a home for local artists.

The Lyric Council, Inc., the organization that oversees Blacksburg’s Lyric Theatre, unveiled a plan Wednesday  for a Community Arts Office and Information Office in an empty space at 149 College Ave.

The office will have office space for four nonprofit arts organizations and an arts information area about any local artist or organization wishing to display, according to the information distributed at Wednesday’s meeting.

The Lyric will serve as the landlord and leaseholder for the building, and tenants must pay a $300 monthly information fee, participate in the center for at least two years, and provide a volunteer to the arts information area five hours a week, among other requirements.

Organizations interested in office space must fill out a request for proposal form, available through the Lyric Theatre. A survey for local arts organizations is also available.

--Amy Matzke-Fawcett

The saga of Crackers Neck continues.

Radford owns about 250 acres in Montgomery County that it really doesn't use for much. The city lets people hunt there, but it's not always hunting season. So Pathways of Radford, a bunch of people who really like trails, came up with a plan to make hiking, biking and and walking trails all over it.

All it took was city council’s permission, 300 or so hours of volunteer labor and about $1,500 for equipment and chain saw fuel. Six miles of trails opened with great hoopla in July.

But the area would is open to hunters.

Everyone making the plans seemed to assume that "hunters" meant "deer hunters." And they assumed that "deer hunters" meant folks who would be hunting during general firearms season. In Montgomery County, that means pretty much the last two weeks of November.

Unfortunately, the permit people get so they can hunt on city land actually gives people "the privilege of hunting, fishing or boating." Squirrel season began Sept. 6. Spring turkey season ends May 16. So that's about eight months and two weeks that hunters could use that land.

The bikers' permit says the holder agrees to not use the place Oct. 4 through Jan. 31, except on Sundays, when it's illegal to hunt.

Through Councilwoman Laurie Buchwald, the bikers suggested a compromise -- cut the hunters back to general firearms deer season.

Instead, council held a public hearing. Everyone who spoke seemed reasonable to Mayor Tom Starnes, so he suggested at the last council meeting in October that a committee with folks from each side suggest a compromise. At Monday night's council meeting (Nov. 10), Councilman Bob Nicholson suggested that nearby landowners be included. Councilman Dick Harshberger suggested a game warden be an ex-officio member. Starnes suggested that each council member come to the next council meetings with a couple of names of people willing to serve on such a committee.

"We need to establish some closure on this item," Starnes said. "I do think we need to move on with the process."

-- Tim Thornton

Because the economy is so bad, state government isn't collecting as much in taxes as the budget writers guessed. So the state cut back on what it sends to local governments. So local governments are getting creative.

Monday night, (Nov. 10) Radford City Council voted to spend $186,125.75 -- very little of it city money.

There were grants from the Virginia E911 Wireless Board, the Virginia Department of Homeland Security, the Bulletproof Vest Partnership, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Virginia Department of Education. The city had to chip in only $10,591 to get all that money -- and that was money it originally planned to spend anyway.

Back before the state started cutting funds, the police department planned to hire a new communications officer. When the budget was cut, they scrapped that idea, but part of what would have been the officer's salary stayed in the budget. So that money will be spent to match the E911 grant. None of the other grants required local matching funds.

-- Tim Thornton

The trial for Augustus Pajibo Peal, a former Virginia Tech student accused of shooting into the apartment of Virginia Tech football player Victor "Macho" Harris, has been postponed.

Peal was scheduled to be tried Monday in Montgomery County Circuit Court on one charge of shooting into an occupied dwelling and one of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The shooting happened at Chasewood Downs apartments about 3:30 a.m. Nov. 11, 2007, after a Tech home game against Florida State. Someone fired at least seven 9 mm rounds into the building and one blast from a 12-gauge shotgun. No one was hurt.

Peal was also scheduled to be tried on 24 charges related to a string of Blacksburg burglaries that also took place in November 2007.

His hearing was rescheduled for 1 p.m. Dec. 15. Peal is scheduled to enter a plea to the charges at that time.

"I want to dispose of this case on that day," Circuit Court Judge Bobby Turk told Peal, who is being held in the Montgomery County Jail.

-- Shawna Morrison

Carol Lindstrom, author of the community blog "Depot Dazed" said that the group working to change Christiansburg elections from May to November of odd-numbered years through referendum has nearly doubled it's goal.

In order to get a referendum to have the elections changed placed on a ballot, the group needed a petition with signatures from at least 10% of voters registered in the town as of Jan. 1. This magic number they were told to shoot for was 1,299.

After setting up at various polling places on Election Day, the group now has a total of 2,555 signatures, Lindstrom said. Their next step is to have the petitions notarized and barring any incredible event, the referendum will be on the ballot in 2009.

--Lerone Graham

There are two meetings coming up in the New River Valley for artists to get involved in local projects.

The first will take place 6 p.m. Monday (Nov.10) at Pulaski Elementary School, 2004 Morehead Ln. regarding the development of the 'Round the Mountain Regional Artisan Trail network. The trail will be similar to the Crooked Road, a heritage music trail,  and will link local artisan studios, galleries, agritourism sites, and lodging and restaurants that sell local crafts and products in 19 counties and four cities in Southwestern Va. For more information about the trail, contact Pat Sharkey at 651-4819 or psharkey@roundthemountain.org. For more about the Pulaski meeting, contact Judy Ison of the Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley at 980-7363.

The second is a town hall meeting in Blacksburg to discuss the needs of the art community on 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday (Nov.12) at The Lyric Theatre, 135 College Ave. According to a flier, topics for discussion will include the proposed Community Arts Information Office on College Avenue and issues and needs
of the New River Valley arts community. The release said a survey for arts organizations was available at thelyric.com, but it didn't seem to be posted Thursday afternoon, so if anyone can find it, please post it here and let us know! For more information about the meeting, call 951-4771.

--Amy Matzke-Fawcett

The Narrows Junior Women's Club will host its 25th annual TV Auction on channel two for Suddenlink customers in Giles County. The event is the main fundraiser for the club, which awards five scholarships in the county each year and donates money to Operation Smile, New River Community Action and other charities as part of its service. The auction usually raises $10,000 each year, according to coordinator Sherry Gautier.

The auction will include arts, crafts and applicances, as well as gift certificates to restaurants and other businesses in Princeton, W.Va., and the Blacksburg-Christiansburg area of Montgomery County. All bidders have to do is tune into the live broadcast and call the auction hotline. Volunteers will track bids on a board on-air, and they will conduct callbacks to winners.

The auction takes place from 7 to 11 p.m., next week, Nov. 11 to 13, live from the BB&T in Narrows. Winners will be able to arrange a time to pick up their merchandise. More information is available by contacting Gautier at 599-3419.

-- Joshua A. DeLung, joshua.delung@roanoke.com

Mountain Lake isn’t the only thing dry thing in Giles County. Cash flow to the Mountain Lake Hotel is drying up too.

The hotel will lay off about 10 people from its usual winter staff of about 15, effective Dec. 1, said innkeeper Buzz Scanland.

Mountain Lake Hotel normally closes most of its operations during the winter months, only keeping nine cottages open and hosting a Christmas program, Scanland said. That will continue as usual.

“Nothing will really change as far as the guests go,” Scanland said.

In previous years, staff has been kept on to make improvements to the hotel, but because of the summer’s high gas prices, the bad economy and the recent drying up of Mountain Lake, the money simply isn’t there this year to keep everyone, Scanland said.

The level of the 50-acre natural lake showcased in the 1987 hit movie “Dirty Dancing” has been dropping since 2006. Today is it mostly dry.

For more details, check Friday's edition of The Roanoke Times.

--Amy Matzke-Fawcett