A new ordinance scheduled for a Blacksburg Town Council vote on April 14 would ban teen night dance events and teen nightclubs within 500 feet of any establishment that sells alcohol. The ordinance would also establish a permitting process for holding such events.
Read the full story in Friday's (March 27) Current. Read the full text of the proposed ordinance here.
-- Tonia Moxley
Newly-appointed Blacksburg Town Councilman Mike Rosenzweig sat on the council dias for the first time Tuesday night. As he sat there, the council approved his further appointment to three town committees:
Rosenzweig already serves on the town's Stormwater Task Force and the Bennett Hill-Progress Neighborhood Task Force.
He was appointed to the council on March 10 to fill the late Derek Myers' seat and will serve until December. A permanent replacement for Myers will be elected in November and sworn in in January.
-- Tonia Moxley
Early this morning, a Radford University student went to a room on the 13th floor of Muse Hall, kicked out the window screen and attempted to jump, according to a university spokesman.
The students who lived in the room grabbed her by the feet. They and other students held onto her until police could arrive.
RU Officers Brad Bolen and James Belcher were able to pull the 18-year-old woman back into the room.
A university spokesman said the incident is not being treated as a suicide attempt because her actions to police indicated that she didn't know where she was or what she was doing.
Officers said the woman was under the influence of narcotics at the time. Here is the full news release from university spokesman Michael Hemphill:
Radford University Police Officers and Students Rescue Fellow Student
RADFORD – At 4:11 a.m. Wednesday, Radford University Police officers Brad Bolen and James Belcher responded to a call to a residence hall room on the 13th floor of Muse Hall. Upon entering the room, the officers found the room’s occupants attempting to rescue a female student who had entered their room, kicked out the window screen and apparently attempted to jump out the window. The room’s occupants and some other students had been able to grab the female student by her feet before she fell. Officers Bolen and Belcher succeeded in pulling the student back into the room. According to the officers, the student was allegedly under the influence of narcotics. The incident is not being treated as a suicide attempt. The student is being hospitalized as a precautionary measure for observation.
“Both the students and officers Bolen and Belcher really did an outstanding job saving her,” said RUPD Chief Colleen Roberts.
Everyone on Radford city council, except the mayor, wanted to advertise a 14-cent real estate tax rate increase in preparation for council's April 13 public hearing on that rate. So that's what council voted to do. But everyone on council wanted to make it clear that's a not-to-exceed rate increase. They could go lower.
In fact, council has more or less agreed on how to cut the increase to about 9 cents -- the increase necessary to make the payments on the city's new elementary school.
Mayor Tom Starnes wants to go lower. The rest of council may be willing to shave a few more cents off the rate, but they don't want to be locked into that cutting. There's a lot of time and talking between now and the final vote on the budget next month.
That 14 cent increase would take Radford's tax rate to 78 cents on every $100 of a house's value.
A few Radford residents took advantage of Monday night's public hearing to let council know what they think about the proposed budget and the tax increase that may come with it.
Larry Walker told council, "I'm sure Tony [Cox] can look back in the budget and cut some more things out."
Those cuts shouldn't include essential services, Walker added.
John McCandlish took the opposite tack. He called the budget lean and reasonable. The 14-cent tax increase would raise the taxes on his $228,000 house about 88 cents a day, McCandlish said. The 9 cents council seems to be hovering around now would mean 32 cents a day.
"I, personally, am willing to pay 32 cents a day to receive services from this city that I think are important," McCandlish said.
-- Tim Thornton
The first public phase of Radford University's review of 29 programs begins today (March 23). The protesters are already organizing.
Students Advocating Liberal Arts (SALA) and Demand Excellence at Radford (DEAR) had an organizational meeting Sunday. They have more actions planned throughout the week. What's spurring them on is the speeding along of the expedited review. Today the Academic Program Review Committee will review 11 programs. The committee -- made up of administrators, faculty and one undergraduate -- is scheduled to announce its vote on those programs about 7 p.m. The committee will have a similar session Friday.
The three possible verdicts, according to faculty senate president Stephen Owen, are continue (which means it can accept applications for the fall); discontinue (the program can't accept any more applications and needs to begin "graduating out" its majors); restructure (the program can't accept applications for the fall and should "reconfigure its resources to attain another potential degree program with all deliberate speed."
On Thursday, the university is holding an open forum on the campus budget. (3:30 p.m. in Bondurant Auditorium in Preston Hall) It was rescheduled twice, once because it conflicted with Radford's appearance in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
That meeting will overlap with another open forum about students' being barred from using the Dedmon Center after its reopening fresh from a $15.7 million renovation paid for with student generated money. (4 p.m. in the auditorium in the Bonnie student center) The budget forum also conflicts with the faculty senate, which is scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m.
SALA and DEAR say they have a budget, growing membership and a conviction that Radford is headed down the wrong track. "This has escalated from a Facebook group and angry majors to a full-fledged faculty and alumni supported group," according to Stephen Schmidt, one of the organizers.
Schmidt said in an email March 21 that SALA was closing in on 100 members and $1,000.
You can find more discussion about this here and here.
-- Tim Thornton
Goodwill Industries of the Valleys plans to open its first Blacksburg store this summer in the Patrick Henry Shopping Center.
The site, at the corner of North Main Street and Patrick Henry Drive, was the former home of the Family Dollar, which closed in December.
The new store should not have an impact on sales at the Christiansburg location, which is the top producer of the organization’s 28 stores, said Kelly Sandridge, community relations director for Goodwill Industries of the Valleys.
The Christiansburg store has already reached sales of $1 million dollars during this fiscal year, which runs from July to June.
“It’s an option to residents of Blacksburg,” Sandridge said of the new store. “People are still going to be going to Christiansburg to shop because that’s where most of the major retailers are located.”
For more, read Tuesday's edition of the New River Valley Current.
--Amy Matzke-Fawcett
Reporter Tim Thornton is blogging live during the game from Sharkey's Wing and Rib Joint in Radford. Join in with the fans below.
The Highlanders take on the Tarheels today in the opening round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament and we'll be in the heart of Highlander country, blogging from Sharkey's on the New River City's Main Street.
Tip off is set for 2:50 p.m. Blogging begins shortly before that on the New River Notebook at newrivervalley.com.
A 16th seed has never beaten a number one seed in the history of March Madness, but Radford University has already beaten the University of North Carolina three times this season.
OK, that was the University of North Carolina at Ashville and this time they're playing a team from the campus in Chapel Hill, but it's still UNC, right?
-- Tim Thornton
This message went out to the faculty and staff at Radford University about 7:30 p.m. on St. Patrick's Day:
The forum is rescheduled for Thursday, March 26, at 3:30 p.m., in the Bondurant Auditorium in Preston Hall. The rescheduling will allow the RU community the opportunity to attend the Forum and support our championship basketball team on Thursday.
This is the second postponement for the forum. It was set for March 9, but Radford's administrators decided they didn't know enough about what the General Assembly was going to do to hold it then. So it was set for March 19. Now it's March 26.
That doesn't conflict with Highlanders v. Tarheels in Greensboro, but it does conflict with another forum scheduled to talk about the wellness and fitness facilities at Radford. Students can't use the Dedmon Center anymore -- it's reserved for athletes -- and many students don't think that's reasonable, since it was mostly student money that paid for the recent $15.7 million renovation and it has the only indoor track on campus and the facilities left on campus can't accommodate (according to some students) the student body.
These are economically hard times, but Radford kept dorms open for an extra day so students could stay for the Big South championship game and the school is providing bus service to students headed to the big game in Greensboro. President Penelope Kyle has sent emails praising students for being so supportive of the basketball team, but there hasn't been much word on the budget or the 29 programs that may be discontinued.
What folks will talk about at the budget forum is an open question. It was originally meant to talk about cuts in state funding , but those cuts that didn't happen. Federal stimulus money is plugging the gap.
Here's an update from university spokesman Michael Hemphill.
"According to Provost [Wil] Stanton, the RU administration is currently studying the most appropriate use for the stimulus money and will present recommendations to the Board of Visitors at its April meeting. The program review will continue as planned. Additional information may be available at next week’s open forum on the budget."
-- Tim Thornton
P.S. Here's the "thank you mentioned a comment below."
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
What an incredible time to be a Radford University Highlander! Together this season, we generated tremendous excitement for the RU community and carried the school's name all across the country.
The season’s magical journey became possible through the hard work of our staff, team and RU administration, but just as important, by our team of loyal and passionate students, alumni, fans and friends.
We thank you for a wonderful season that began in Peter’s Hall in front of just 500 people and continued through the ESPN televised Big South Championship in the renovated Dedmon Center. It concluded with a dance on the grand stage at the Greensboro Coliseum as we played North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before a crowd of 20,000 and the CBS national television audience.
Thank you to everyone who proudly displayed their Highlander pride and made this basketball season a joyful success. We look forward to more magic in 2009-10!
In appreciation,
Coach Brad Greenberg
* * * * *
Here are some links you may find interesting:
· Decorate your computer desktop with scenes from the Highlanders remarkable season http://www.radford.edu/NewsPub/wallpaper.html
Radford University - 801 East Main Street - Radford, VA 24142
Radford University is evaluating 29 programs to see if they fit in the university's long term vision and to see if they are productive enough to continue. This was originally described as part of pair of parallel strategies. One has to do with positioning Radford as a university of the future. The other had to do with the budget cuts in the state budget.
The future, so far as we know, is still on the way, but the budget cuts aren't.
Still, a campus forum on the issue is scheduled for Thursday -- scheduled to begin 10 minutes after the Highlanders tip off against the University of North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Some discussion is already going on outside the forum. Here, for instance. And here.
-- Tim Thornton
