Can you believe June is almost over? Our latest issue of SWoCo comes out Friday, destined to reach more than 90 percent of the households in Southwest Roanoke County. (How do we do that? See below. And if you’d like to find out how you can advertise in SWoCo to reach all those households, click here for retail advertising or click here for classifieds.)

We update this site multiple times a day on weekdays, and sometimes on weekends, so think of this as your site for daily coverage of Southwest Roanoke County.

Meanwhile, in the June 27 issue, you’ll see several places where we direct folks online for more photos or other coverage. Here’s a guide to our . . .

SPECIAL ONLINE EXTRAS

* AEP wants to build power line near Tanglewood
* Former North Cross student plays at Wimbledon
* Roanoke County bus drivers take top honors
* More on chocolatepaper’s expansion into downtown Roanoke
* Are there too many coffee shops?
* Photos of the Future Knights Basketball Camp
* Southwest Roanoke County kids draw sidewalk chalk art
* More photos about Girl Scouts seek to help pre-teens

Finally, some shout-outs: Send us your summer photos! Click here to find out more. And high school grads, you can still write your graduation blurb about your plans and we’ll publish it for free. Click here to find out more about that.

Want to find out how to get other news and photos in SWoCo? Keep reading below!

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Hidden Valley Middle School has received $2,500 from the Food Lion Charitable Foundation. Hidden Valley Middle School will use the gift to help fund its new Literacy Library.

“We are very grateful to Food Lion for this generous infusion of funds in support of our Literacy Library,” said Ken Nicely, principal of the school.

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Four of the original Piedmont Airlines Flight Attendants retired June 5, from the now merged USAirways. Whitney Deyerle, Verity Callender, Linda Simmons, and Trina Lewis have a combined 120 years of flying experience.

All live and were formally based in Roanoke. The four gals commuted by plane and car to their bases in Charlotte and Philadelphia after the Roanoke based close.

A party was given by hosts Mary and John Delany. More than 50 of the former Piedmont employees, spouses, and friends attended.

“No matter how long we fly or where we fly with USAirways, passengers stopped us and said you used to be a Piedmont Girl, we can tell.”

We are very proud to say they were always right. All four are looking forward to the next journey in their lives here in the Roanoke Valley.

Submitted by Linda Simmons, f/a – seniority of June 16, 1978.

Picture caption: From left to Right is Whitney Deyerle, Trina Lewis, Linda Simmons, and Verity Callender.

Roanoke West Village invites you to the First Market Bank’s Grand Opening Celebration, located at 3605 Electric Rd. Roanoke, on Friday, June 27th, from 11:00am-2:00pm.

Bring up to three bins of your personal documents to be shredded, enter our drawing to win a $500 Ukrop’s Gift Card, step into our Money Machine for 30 seconds to grab all the cash you can and enjoy a delicious cookout lunch and grand opening specials!

Joan Duus, who directs the Pizzazz Star City Twirlers sent in some updated information about the Pizzazz Star City Twirlers. This is what she had to say:

We have once again been invited to entertain at the Opening Ceremonies of the Common Wealth Games for the 3rd straight year.

Also Harlie Dale will be performing a 3-Baton Fire routine. She is the 2007 National 3-Baton Champion and will also be competing at Notre Dame in July at the Nationals.

We had a previous post about the Pizzazz Star City Twirlers on June 24.

That’s what SWoCo asked folks at Kroger, Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea and Tanglewood Mall. Don Wells (left) is spending time with his son who’s home from the army special forces. See what others had to say in our photo gallery.

Others we talked to were: McAnnally family, Bob Middaugh, the Foster family, Eleshea Manning, Jessica Layman, Victoria Martin, the Hubert family, John Chambers, Charles Ferguson, Michelle Throckmorton, the Vigorito family, Stonewall Wilson, David Battle, Barbara Jordan, and Jerome Boyd.

Let us know what you’re doing! Leave a comment below.

Work on installing a 12-inch waterline from Clearbrook in Roanoke County, where an existing line stops, to Wirtz Plateau Plaza area in Franklin County in the U.S. 220 corridor will begin at the end of June. According to Sarah Baumgardner with the Western Virginia Water Authority, Franklin County approached the water authority because it needed reliable water for residents in both quality and quantity.

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Former Hidden Valley pitcher Mikey O’Brien has signed with the Yankees, bypassing a college career, his father said Thursday. We have more details here.

Our last post about O’Brien was June 5.

What do you think of the move? You can leave comments below.

We have a photo gallery of 16 photos from Monday’s game between the South County Astros and the Mason’s Cove Eagles in the RAYSA Softball Tournament at Moyer Sports Complex in Salem.

At above: Brianna Agee is ready at shortstop for the Astros.

Photos by Erin Millar.

Do you have sports photos of teams or players from Southwest Roanoke County? If so, you can share them at news@swo-co.com

Over on the sports page, we have a story today from the Orlando Sentinel about former Cave Spring star J.J. Redick — and how he’s not getting much playing time in the NBA, wants a trade, but the Magic aren’t likely to deal him.

So what do you think about Redick’s situation? You can leave comments below on this blog, or email us at news@swo-co.com

Associated Press photo