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A 17-year effort to bring National Wild and Scenic River designation to a 19.3-mile stretch of the New River (from Glen Lyn to Bluestone Lake in West Virginia) is nearing an end.

Public comment on a 194-page report ends this week. The Giles County Board of Supervisors will consider a resolution of support at its Wednesday meeting. Public comment made be made then or here.

Comments on the report, and designation, at the federal level can be made to the U.S. National Park Service here.

The full report is here.

The Giles golf team won the state Group A golf tournament today while Zeke Shaffer of Radford won the individual title. We have details on our Pressbox sports blog.

Vaccinations begin Wednesday for lower grades at five schools in the New River Health District — two elementary schools in Floyd County, two elementary/middle schools in Giles County and one elementary school in Montgomery County.

Reporter Duncan Adams has more on this story.

Narrows High School Principal Rex Gearhart confirmed that Giles County schools will reopen on Wednesday, a day after schools were shuttered because of a boil-water advisory. Students will continue in school through Thursday, but Friday and Monday are holidays already built into the academic calendar.

For more on the water situation in Giles, see this update from the newsroom of The Roanoke Times.

Clean water service is expected to be restored in Giles County Sept. 9 or 10, according to Roger Houck, interim director of the Giles County Public Service Authority.

Reporter Jeff Sturgeon has more details.

We had a previous post last night about the boil notice.

Authorities in Giles County issued a water boil notice Monday afternoon because an equipment failure is allowing unfiltered water to enter the drinking stream in that area.

Click here for more details from the newsroom of The Roanoke Times.

Think you've got what it takes to be a fearless forecaster? Match your predictions against the sports staff of The Roanoke Times -- and anyone else who wants to sign up in this year's edition of Varsity Forecasters.

The roster of games this week includes, of course, these New River Valley contests:
* Pulaski at Radford
* Christiansburg at Floyd
* Blacksburg at Giles
* Bath at Eastern Montgomery
* Craig at Auburn
* James Monroe at Narrows

Click here to sign up and make your picks. The deadline is 4 p.m. on Friday.

Narrows High School travelled to Botetourt County on Friday to play James River High School in a "benefit" game -- i.e., the high school equivalent of a pre-season game.

We have photos from the game from our community news publication in Botetourt, The Botetourt View (which is another way of saying you might see more photos of the James River side than the Narrows side.)

You can view the photos in the slideshow above or this gallery format.

For a brief account of the contest, see this post on The Botetourt View.

Do you have photos involving teams or players from the New River Valley? If so, you can share at newriver@roanoke.com

AYP is the minimum level of improvement in Standards of Learning test scores, attendance and other areas that states, school districts and schools must achieve each year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools which receive Title I federal aid for low-income students and fail to make AYP for two consecutive years must offer parents the option of transferring their children to better-performing schools in the same school district.

The numbers for the most recent school year have been released 13 schools in the New River Valley fall short -- seven in Montgomery County, three in Pulaski County and three in Giles County. All schools in Radford and Floyd met the AYP standards.

You can look up the results yourself in this database on our Datasphere site of searchable data.

New River Valley American Legion Post 68's baseball team was eliminated from the state tournament in Glen Allen today following a 10-1 loss to Norfolk Post 60.

Here is a slideshow of Post 68 in action at the tournament this week.