www.newrivervalley.com

Despite a deepening recession and a $600,000 budget shortfall, Blacksburg officials are pressing ahead with long-discussed museum projects.

The first town museum is set to open this fall at the historic St. Luke's and Odd Fellows Hall at 203 Gilbert St. and will feature exhibits on the town's African-American community. A story about the hall, its history and the museum project will run in Saturday's (Jan. 31, 2009) Roanoke Times.

Last week, the council also approved $1 million in capital improvement funds for restoration of the Alexander Black House on Draper Road. Built by a member of the town's founding family -- a white family with the surname Black -- the house was moved from its original location on Main Street in 2002 to make way for the Kent Square retail complex.

The ornate building has sat vacant since that time, but work is progressing on turning it into the main town museum, Blacksburg Museum Administrator Terry Nicholson said.

To get the $1 million in town funds, the museum committee and a newly-formed nonprofit organization created to oversee the project must raise another $1 million in matching funds. Nicholson estimated that the fundraising could take a year or more.

The town owns nine major historical structures, some of which need major or minor repairs. They are:

St. Luke’s and Odd Fellows Hall, 203 Gilbert St.

Blacksburg Motor Company (former Doc Roberts Tire Co.), 400 S. Main St.

Bennett House at Wong Park, 303 Wilson Ave.

Five Chimneys House, 203 Washington St.

Thomas-Connor House, 104 Draper Road

Alexander Black House, 204 Draper Road

Nelson O. Price House, 107 Wharton St.

Old Town Hall, 141 Jackson St.

The Armory, 201 Draper Road

Earmarked donations may be made to any of the town's museum or other historical efforts by contacting Nicholson.

-- Tonia Moxley

Floyd's Jacksonville Center for the Arts, the Floyd Marketing Group and 'Round the Mountain have been awarded a grant to help fund the printing of artisan trail maps and brochures for a collaborative project designed to bring cultural tourists to the area.

The fund-matching grant from the Virginia Tourism Corporation, will fund $3,711 of the project, while the Jacksonville Center, Floyd Marketing Group and 'Round the Mountain raised $4,511, said Pat Sharkey, trail development coordinator for eastern counties.

The Floyd leg of the trail project is tentatively being called "Floyd's Mountain Breeze Ramble," and is part of 'Round the Mountain's larger artisan trail network project,  which will develop trails that promote artisan studios, galleries, farms, agritourism sites and venues that support artisans in 19 counties and four cities, including Montgomery, Pulaski, Floyd and Giles counties and the city of Radford. Each locality will have its own artisan trail, which will be part of the larger regional trail. There will not be physical trails built, but rather more of a comprehensive directory of sites, Sharkey said.

The trail map/brochure is scheduled to be available by April or May 2009.

In Floyd County, there are currently about 30 individual businesses and studios that will be part of the trail.

Patrick County, Carroll County and the city of Galax have also been awarded funds recently to help fund their county's trail maps, Sharkey said.

"We're finally getting beyond the orientation stage and getting things moving," Sharkey said.

For more information, or to be included as a trail site or advertiser in Floyd’s Mountain Breeze Ramble Artisan Trail, contact Sharkey at 651-4819 or psharkey@roundthemountain.org or The Jacksonville Center for the Arts at 745-2784 or info@jacksonvillecenter.org.

--Amy Matzke-Fawcett

A Monday morning fire that has closed the Christiansburg Papa John's for the week started in some pizza boxes that were stacked up along an inside wall, Lt. Danny Yopp with the Christiansburg Fire Department said.

Yopp said the fire department got a call about the fire at 4:52 a.m. Monday. It took firefighters five or six minutes to contain the blaze, he said.

The fire was contained to one wall, Yopp said, and the building sustained no structural damage. There was smoke damage throughout the store, he said.

A Papa John's employee said the store, at 7 South Main Street, is expected to be closed for at least a week.

--Shawna Morrison

A grassroots drive to establish a regional children's museum in downtown Blacksburg will hold an open meeting Thursday (Jan. 29, 2009) at 7 p.m. at the Blacksburg Library at 200 Miller St.

According to the group's Facebook profile, organizers are looking for ideas, volunteers, board members and a building in which to locate the museum.

Our idea is to create a place for children to learn and explore through hands-on experiences. The museum will include stimulating exhibits, special events, and live demonstrations that explore and instill a sense of discovery about music, science, technology, art, and regional heritage, the profile states.

Interested folks can attend the meeting, send e-mail to blacksburgchildrensmuseum@gmail.com, or join the Facebook group.

-- Tonia Moxley

After years of anticipation and a few false starts, microbrewing has flooded Blacksburg and the New River Valley and has flowed as far northeast as Roanoke.

On New Years' Day, the long-awaited Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill opened on Blacksburg's South Main Street. Next came word that neighbors had dropped a Virginia ABC appeal and Shooting Creek Farm Brewery in Floyd County would begin brewing their original recipe ales.

Then on Friday (Jan. 23), local restaurants began serving Blacksburger Pils, a new microbrew from brewmaster and Virginia Tech Alum John Bryce and his Blacksburg Brewing Company.

Blacksburger Pils is "all-malt European style pilsner," Bryce wrote in a news release. The brew is now on tap at The Cellar, Souvlaki and Cabo Fish Taco, all in downtown Blacksburg.

Bryce brewed and distributed a half-dozen popular local-themed microbrews beginning in 2002. But inexperience and mounting debt forced the closure of the business in 2004.

Since then Bryce has worked at other breweries and recently completed the brewmaster certification program at Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin, Germany. He now works as brewmaster at the newly-opened Roanoke Railhouse Brewery.

For the foreseeable future, Blacksburger Pils will be available only in Blacksburg restaurants and bars, Bryce wrote in the release.

-- Tonia Moxley

The Papa John's restaurant at 7 South Franklin Street in Christiansburg -- across from the Montgomery County Courthouse -- is closed today.

A store employee said a Monday morning fire damaged the store. He said it will likely be closed for at least a week.

-- Shawna Morrison

At its Monday, Jan. 26, meeting, Radford City Council endorsed a grant application that may bring a transit system back to the New River City. Now, don't go trotting down the bus stop just yet. This was an endorsement of an application to the state's Department of Rail and Public Transportation for a grant that could fund a study that may lead to the creation of a bus system. But it's a start.

"It's kind of the gateway to other money," said Vicky Collins, who spoke for the committee that's spent six months looking at how a transit system might benefit Radford and how Radford might get some money to restart its transit system. (The city's been without one for 27 years.)

City engineer Jim Hurt said there have been two previous attempts to bring buses back to Radford since the service stopped in 1981, but neither of them got this far. This might be the time to move, according to the memo the committee sent council. In the third quarter of 2008, the committee said, transit ridership had its biggest in 25 years.

The grant is for $40,000. It requires a $4,000 match from the city government. City Manager Tony Cox said city staff is trying to talk the state out of that requirement.

-- Tim Thornton

Blacksburg's Housing and Neighborhood Services office is seeking public input on its programs and projects for the next five years.

Hem, haw, rant, rave or even give some helpful suggestions in the following ways:

Complete the online survey

Attend the open house Thursday, January 29, 2009, from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. at 303 Wilson Ave.

Or, call 540-951-4336 or send e-mail to housing@blacksburg.gov

All comments are due by 5 p.m. Feb. 6, 2009.

People with disabilities who require assistance to attend the meeting should contact Crystal Handy at 540-951-4336 at least 5 days prior to the meeting. Text telephone calls can be placed through the Virginia Relay System at 711 and will be relayed to 540-951-4336.

-- Tonia Moxley

Have a business or building in the downtown Blacksburg commercial district? Think your building needs a facelift but you're short of cash?

Applications are now being accepted for the Blacksburg Housing and Neighborhood Services Office commercial facade loan program. Qualifying businesses or landowners can get up to a $25,000 forgivable loan to to improve the appearance of buildings.

The program is funded through the town's annual federal Community Development Block Grant allocation and is part of an ongoing effort to convert the struggling downtown to a bustling arts, culture and business center.

Read the application guidelines and call 540-951-4336 or send e-mail to housing@blacksburg.gov for more information.

-- Tonia Moxley

Blacksburg was recently ranked 14th in Forbes magazine's list of America's 20 "most educated" small towns.

To determine America's most-educated small towns, we used data from the U.S. Census 2005-2007 American Community Survey, which polled more than 2,500 regions with 20,000 to 65,000 residents about their educational attainment. The number of graduate degrees--including master's degrees, Ph.D.'s, professional degrees, bachelor's degrees and associate degrees--were each divided by the population of the town over age 25 and then weighted to give a final average for each location. Read more...

-- Tonia Moxley