www.newrivervalley.com

Blacksburg's first microbrewery and restaurant Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill opens to the public tonight, New Year's Eve. Dinner in the dining room is by reservation only. Operator and co-owner Mark Shrader said 350 reservations had been booked by Tuesday night.

The 100-foot-long granite topped bar with ice rail will be open tonight first-come, first-serve and will offer a full line of brews, scotches and mixed drinks as well as pub-style food.

The first lunch service will commence at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day. Doors close at 2 a.m.

While the bar offers commercial beers Miller Light, Bud Light and Tacate, the fresh-brewed, unpasteurized microbrews are the stars here. A seasonal winter ale is being brewed now and will hit the taps in a week or so, brewmaster Jim Strickland said.

Tonight six microbrews will be available:

Strick's Dark Lager: Brewmaster's oldest signature beer. Dark chestnut lager with slight hop sharpness.

Maroon Effect Ale: Brown ale with chocolate and caramel malts.

St. Maeve's Stout: Rich, dark and gently roasted experience.

The Lunch Pale Ale: Classic California style pale ale with a hint of citrus. Lunch Pail Defense and Bud Foster approved.

All Night Light: American lager with low hop bitterness and a light malt body.

Sun Lit Witt: A Belgian style, unfiltered wheat beer with light, frothy flavor.

See the food menu at bullandbones.com.

Don't forget to designate a driver or plan to call one of Blacksburg's taxi services to get you home safe.

Check Thursday's Current or newrivervalley.com for an in-depth profile of Bull & Bones.

-- Tonia Moxley

The following is an excerpt of the original article that ran Christmas Eve, about the Floyd County family who just had a baby boy after losing their 4-year-old son to a rare brain tumor. This section, which appeared in the article before "What might have been," was cut due to space limitations.

Brian Harman returned to court for a ‘normal’ day

Brian Harman said going back to work provided some peace following Chance’s death.

Though he said he cherished every moment of the seven months he spent with Chance in the hospital, he’d “give anything for a normal day.” A normal day for Harman is on the court, where he’s the head coach of the Floyd County High School boys basketball team.

At his team’s Dec. 17 home opener against Craig County, Harman was a different person than the gentle family man that drives his wife and two kids around with the sound of Barney the Dinosaur melodies blaring from the back seat.

“Attack! Attack!” Harman shouted from the bench, encouraging his team to tighten up on defense.

Throughout the game, he seemed to live by his new philosophy of not taking anything for granted.

After his pre-game ritual of tracing Chance’s initials onto the court with his foot, Harman was all business. The way his jaw remained clenched while his eyes were intensely locked into the game action, one wouldn’t be able to tell that his team would go on to route Craig County 75-34.

With the home team seemingly scoring at will, Desirae Harman was noticeably removed from all of the excitement happening around her.

At one point, when a Floyd County player sunk a 3-pointer causing the crowd and the announcer to erupt, she was too busy wiping Chaycen’s mouth with a cloth rag to join the celebration.

Destiny, his well-meaning big sister, tried to help out at times, but often didn’t know her own strength.

“Easy, easy, easy,” Desirae Harman said as Destiny tried to give her brother his pacifier a bit too forcefully.

Once the game was over, Brian Harman picked up Destiny and carried her with him to the locker room. She remained in his arms throughout the post-game pep talk.

“Been a while, ain’t it?” Harman said to his players with a smile.

The win put the team at 2-1. Though early in the season, the Buffaloes haven’t been accustomed to having a winning record. Two years ago, when Brian Harman was absent most of the season to care for Chance, his team struggled through a one-win season.

“Family on three ... 1, 2, 3,” Harman said to wrap up the post-game speech, with his team answering, “Family!”

--Lerone Graham

Citizens, journalists and officials looking for an overview of their rights and responsibilities under the state's sunshine law have a new resource: the town of Blacksburg Web site.

Town Attorney Larry Spencer recently sent me a link to a new section of the site, which explains in plain English many of the main points of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. He based the town's FOIA page on information provided on several similar Virginia government agency FOIA pages.

The act spells out what records and information, including e-mails, memos, letters and financial and other documents that must be made available to the public by government officials. It's a complicated and long set of rules that often causes confusion and even animosity. But Spencer has boiled it down to the most important points, including a simple but detailed how-to guide for requesting information.

"Making a FOIA request is not an adversarial process," the page explains. "FOIA encourages citizens and government officials to work together."

This approach marks a sea change from 2005, when some town council members admitted to deleting e-mails and even throwing away some public documents. Council members now archive their e-mails and produce them promptly upon request. Other records, such as site plans for major development projects, are posted in full on the town's Web site.

A year's worth of town council meeting videos, agendas and minutes are also available online.

Spencer wrote in an e-mail recently that he hoped the town's FOIA page would serve as a resource for both residents who are requesting information and for town staff who may be called upon to fill FOIA requests.

The page might also be a resource, and perhaps an example, to other New River Valley governments.

In Radford, only the city police department's Web page includes any information about FOIA requests. That page explains the basics of the act and even identifies the department's records manager by name. Radford Police Chief Don Goodman formerly served with the Blacksburg Police Department, which has for years been a leader among area law enforcement in freedom of information issues.

Neither the Radford City Council Web page, nor that of any other city department lists any FOIA information, however. The Roanoke Times recently filed suit in Radford Circuit Court alleging the city violated FOIA rules when responding to some records requests made by Times reporter Tim Thornton.

Christiansburg's site contains no information on FOIA, and problems with notification of public meetings and documents requests have been reported by residents and the Roanoke Times over the past year.

Elsewhere in the NRV, the Floyd County Board of Supervisors Web page lists some basic information about open meetings requirements and a link to supervisors' meeting agendas. It does not address records or information requests.

Web sites for the counties of Giles and Pulaski do not address FOIA issues. The Montgomery County government site mentions but does not explain FOIA rules.

Besides Blacksburg, two other comprehensive FOIA resources are the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council and the nongovernmental Virginia Coalition for Open Government.

-- Tonia Moxley

The long-awaited full opening of the Bull & Bones BrewHaus and Grill in the First & Main shopping Center on South Main Street in Blacksburg is set for Jan. 1, according to co-owner Mark Shrader.

For those who want a sneak peak, Blacksburg's first brewhaus will be open on New Year's Eve. Dining that night is by reservation only , Shrader said. But the bar will also be open.

Shrader and business partners Jon and Peggy Coburn have been working on this project for more than a year. Eager microbrew lovers have been waiting anxiously as well.

The restaurant will offer a line of six original recipe beers brewed on premises, as well as a full restaurant menu including steaks, fish, sandwiches and salads in various price ranges.

The Sake House Japanese restaurant, Elderberries (sandwiches and smoothies) and several other businesses have opened in the retail center since October.

-- Tonia Moxley

Blacksburg Town Council and developers of the town’s First & Main shopping center will face off Jan. 15 (2009) before the Virginia Supreme Court over a big-box store thought to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Each side will get 20 minutes to argue its case, according to a letter from Supreme Court clerk Patricia Harrington. Several briefs have already been filed in the case, which some experts have said could set precedent in Virginia land-use law.

The council is asking the court to affirm its power to strictly regulate or nix a 186,000-square-foot big-box store proposed by Fairmount Properties of Ohio for several acres at South Main and Country Club Drive.

But the council has so far lost its argument before its own Board of Zoning Appeals and Montgomery County Circuit Court. Both have ruled that a 2006 rezoning approved by the council gives Fairmount a “vested right” under state law to build without further interference.

Some members and affiliates of the anti-Wal-Mart group Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth have filed their own appeal in the case seeking to regulate or block the store.

Three separate cases related to the big-box dispute — the council’s formal appeal of both the zoning board’s decision and the circuit court ruling and the BURG appeal — have been consolidated for this hearing, Town Attorney Larry Spencer said.

Several briefs have already been filed in the case, including a friend of the court brief signed by attorneys for the Virginia Municipal League, the Virginia Association of Counties, and other groups.

Although the case will be heard next month, the ruling likely won’t be handed down until March, Spencer wrote in an e-mail.

The last Supreme Court case involving the town was in 2007, when the council won the right to disregard a 1973 annexation agreement promising public sewer service to residents of the Toms Creek basin.

-- Tonia Moxley

A Washington Post story about Terry McAuliffe’s undeclared campaign for governor prominently mentions R.J. Kirk, Southwest Virginia’s only billionaire. Kirk is a Radford University graduate and a member of the university’s board of visitors, but that didn’t make it into the story.

Kirk’s role was more as a source of money McAuliffe would like to tap and as someone who offered the apparent candidate apparently illegal whiskey.

The Post talks of McAuliffe’s “courtship of Kirk” and says the two got along so well during their three-hour lunch that “Kirk broke out the moonshine.”

"I wanted him to know where he was," the Post quoted Kirk.

Of course, Kirk’s Pulaski County estate is a couple of counties away from the section of Virginia that claims to be the world’s moonshine capital.

The Post says the billionaire is backing McAuliffe, by the way.

-- Tim Thornton

Now it's a week and a day. NPR had this report this morning. (Dec. 30. 2008)

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I took a couple of days off for Christmas, so I haven't updated the Tennessee coal ash flood information for a while. In the interim, there has been some national news coverage and even a front page story in The Roanoke Times. I've put a few links below to recent news coverage, a couple of blogs and the official EPA and TVA pages. At least two things have become clear in the past few days:

The spill was much larger than the TVA originally said.

The EPA has determined that there are (not surprisingly) elevated levels of heavy metals in the path of the flood, including very high levels of arsenic.

The TVA has not backed down, so far as I know, from its early explanations for the fish kills downstream. 1) It's been really cold. 2) Maybe the flood splashed a lot of fish of on the bank.

Here are the links. Some have sound. Some have video.

A backgrounder on coal waste.

Coverage from NBC.

The New York Times story from Christmas Eve

NPR, the day after Christmas

The Chattanooga paper,  Dec. 27

The Louisville Courier Journal Dec. 27

Environmental activist Dave Cooper on the Huffington Post

The Knoxville News Sentinel Monday, Dec. 29

CNN, Monday, Dec. 29

The EPA page

The Institute for Southern Studies

The TVA page, including video of a news conference.

And here's all the stuff I've posted previously about the flood.

-- Tim Thornton

Friends of a Christiansburg mother and daughter who were found dead in their home nearly a week ago have set up a makeshift memorial at their front door.

Pictures, flowers and notes surround the front door of 121 Haymaker Street, where police found the bodies of 35-year-old Shelley Ann Wood and 16-year-old Ashley Taylor Sweeney last Saturday morning.

Jeffrey Lee Mills, a man Wood had been involved in a relationship with, was charged with first-degree murder in their deaths but then was found dead in his jail cell of an apparent suicide.

Visitation is being held today for Wood and her daughter at Oakey's Vinton Chapel. They will be laid to rest tomorrow at Mountain View Cemetery in Vinton.

Pieces of crime scene tape are still tied around the deck at the back of their condominium.

But in the front, pictures of Wood and her daughter are taped to the door, along with pictures of Ashley Sweeney and her boyfriend, Tim. One person placed a poinsettia wreath at the front door with a card saying the pair would be able to spend Christmas in heaven. Other people have placed fresh flowers at the door.

A large poster for visitors to sign is accompanied by a stack of multi-colored markers, and a row of candles and a lighter sit on the front step.

--Shawna Morrison

More about the Tennessee coal ash dam break.

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Radford University professor and Appalachian Voice editor Bill Kovarik just posted this. (10:47 a.m. 12-24)

Appalachian Voice is getting a report this morning on a hospitalization from drinking tainted water

We also understand that TVA officials are telling local residents to boil water. This seems like very poor advice under the circumstances. through an environmental group.

Boiling kills bacteria and is good advice in a general flood when sewer lines are breached. But boiling will also concentrate heavy metals.  We have asked TVA for a response.

We have also asked for citizen journalists to report more about the spill by logging on here.
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More updates and news about the coal ash slurry spill. It's happened in Harriman before.
The Charleston, S.C., paper has running coverage of coal sludge issues.

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Jeff Biggers, author of The United States of Appalachia, has weighed in on the the coal ash flood story.

CNN ran a story last night (Dec. 23), just 43 hours or so after the flood began.

You can find more information and more links in the posts and comments below.

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When the first reports came in Monday morning, they said an earthen dam holding a slurry of coal ash and water collapsed at the Kingston Steam Plant, a coal-fired Tennessee Valley Authority electricity generating plant near Harriman, Tenn. It flooded eight to 10 houses and a train track, those reports said.

When the sun came up, things looked a lot worse.

This spill is bigger than the Exxon Valdez, bigger than the Martin County, Ky., coal sludge spill of 2000. The Exxon Valdez dumped nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound in 1989. The Martin County dam collapse dumped 300 million gallons of coal sludge into tributaries of the Tug Fork River. The effects spread all the way into the Ohio River. The Harriman spill has spread more than 500 million gallons of a mix of coal ash and water over about 400 acres. It's 6 feet deep in some places. At least one house was shoved off its foundation.

Coal ash contains a long list of toxic components, including arsenic, lead and mercury.

Environmental reporter Jim Bruggers has gathered reports and video on his blog that tells the story so far.

The news may bring Cumberland Park mind. Cumberland Park is the Appalachian Power project in Giles County that is in the process of burying 254,000 cubic yards of coal ash in the flood plain beside the New River. But Cumberland Park is filling with dry ash. The Kingston pond was filled with wet ash.

"That's completely apples and oranges," Joe Ryder said Monday. Ryder is the environmental compliance officer at the Glen Lyn power plant that's providing the ash for Cumberland Park.

The Kingston pond has more in common with the slurry ponds the Glen Lyn plant has used for decades. They're down river from the plant, just upstream from West Virginia.

There's more video on the Tennessee flooding here.

Here's another report about fish kills downstream from the spill.

This may be the first national news notice of the event. Though I hear the New York Times has dispatched a reporter to the scene. (It's now about 40 hours after the flood began.)

Here's some talk about what's up with the dearth of national coverage.

-- Tim Thornton

Nesselrod on the New, a bed and breakfast and popular wedding spot in Fairlawn, will reopen Jan. 1 as Nesselrod Inn.

The property has been bought by Nesselrod, LLC, the owner of which would like to remain anonyomous, said Tanya White, wedding coordinator and former manager of the property. White did say the owner was a local person, however.

 A previous deal with Roanoke developers Smith/Packett stalled and then called off due to problems negotiating a price.  Smith/Packett's plans would turn the eight-acre property into a retirement community with 50 independent-living apartments, 34 assisted-living units, 20 memory-care units and about 50 staff members. The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors rezoned the land and approved a special-use permit to allow Smith/Packett to build there.

The inn, situated on eight acres above the New River, will still function as a bed-and-breakfast with a focus on weddings, White said.

"It will basically be the same bed and breakfast with outdoor weddings," White said.