Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511130005
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
WYTHEVILLE - Students from several Wythe County schools have made a good start in planting 1,100 seedlings to help create a 40-acre natural woodland on the Wytheville Community College campus.
Nan Kegley, a professional landscaper, and Liza Field, a writer interested in conservation, presented the plan for the project to college President William Snyder and Bill Dixon, who is in charge of buildings and grounds, and got their support for it. Kegley and the Wythe Conservation Group drew up the plan.
The campus is home to a variety of bird and mammal life, supports a wetland system including a spring-water creek and pond, and sits near the junction of two heavily traveled interstate highways generating air pollution from vehicle emissions.
Larry Wilhite, a Speedwell resident who has taught tree planting and care in area schools, approached the town about donating the seedlings from the National Tree Trust program.
Wilhite said 200 dogwood seedlings are being donated by Louisiana-Pacific Corp., 100 bald cypress by Temple-Inland Corp., 300 green ash by Champion International Corp., and 200 sweetgum and 300 shumard oak by Weyerhaeuser Co. through the program.
Students and Scouts have been involved in the tree planting. "Most classes today involve lots of textbook and ... very little connection to the earth," said Field. "In bringing together these two divorced elements, I feel we can begin some needed healing, if only in the simple act of restoring a small woodland - and kids' connection to the outdoors."
Anti-prison feeling evident in election
WYTHEVILLE - If Tuesday's election represented any kind of referendum on the prison issue in Wythe County, the prison lost.
Two supervisors who backed the placement of a private prison near Wytheville as a boost to the economy lost their re-election bids, and a newcomer tied to the prison issue also lost.
Olin Armentrout, the Fort Chiswell District supervisor, ran as an independent after being denied the candidacy of his own Democratic Party over the prison issue. Two other independents, Johnny Huddle and Thomas Reed Montgomery, and Republican Bob Shook joined the race, but the winner was the Democratic candidate, S. Clay Lawrence.
Speedwell District Supervisor Jack Crosswell switched from Democrat to Republican to make the race, but lost to Democratic challenger Harvey Atkinson.
Anti-prison groups campaigned against Armentrout and Crosswell, as well as Republican Mike Fariss, who sought the at-large seat being vacated by Democrat John Davis. Democrat Bucky Sharitz won that seat.
The prison opponents had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the supervisors to hold a referendum on the issue. Corrections Corporation of America, which holds an option on land near Wytheville, was not chosen to build a 1,500-bed medium-security prison in the state's bidding process but is still in the running for a 1,000-bed minimum-security prison.
Sheriff Wayne Pike, a Republican, won re-election in a three-way race with Democrat Sam Burcham and independent Tuck Lephew.
West Wytheville District Supervisor Mark Munsey, a Republican and current board chairman, was unopposed for re-election, as were Commonwealth's Attorney Tommy Baird and Commissioner of Revenue Mary "Sis" Cassell, both Democrats; Treasurer Sam Crockett, a Republican, and current School Board Chairman Walter White in the Fort Chiswell District. Newcomer Freddie Rosenbaum was unopposed for the Speedwell District School Board seat being vacated by Lynthia Brewer.
Two other new faces on the School Board will be Betty Irvin, who won the at-large seat in a race with Jane Musser, and Martha Umberger, who emerged the winner in West Wytheville over Thomas Ely. Cleta Roberts and David Macpherson, who held those seats, did not seek re-election.
Directory markets wood products
WYTHEVILLE - The New River-Highlands Resource Conservation & Development Council has produced a wood products marketing publication for Southwest Virginia in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
"Specialty Forest Products Directory of Southwest Virginia" details goods and services of nearly 100 wood-related enterprises. It will be available to the public through chambers of commerce, U.S. Forest Service visitors' centers and the RC&D office at 110 W. Spiller St. in Wytheville.
The directory is part of a project to create and expand forest products markets. Funding came through a Corporation for National and Community Service grant and information from the Virginia Department of Forestry.
The region's wood products industry includes handcrafts, furniture, toys and even musical instruments. Each directory entry contains names, addresses, products manufactured and species of wood used.
The directory also lists sawmills and other sources of rough, finished and treated lumber in Southwest Virginia, the type of operation, products manufactured and other data. Further information is available by calling James Pratt, forest products marketing specialist (228-9353), or Charlie Becker, 228-2879.
WCC presenting `Night, Mother'
WYTHEVILLE - "'Night, Mother," the fall production of Wytheville Community College's drama program, will open at 8 p.m. Friday on campus.
It will also be performed Saturday and Nov. 17 and 18. Tickets are $3 for adults and $2 for senior citizens and students. They will be on sale at the door or can be reserved by calling 223-4795.
The play contains adult themes and is not recommended for children under 12. It was written by Marsha Norman and won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
"It's a play you think about a long time after you see it," said director Janice Scudder, a professor of speech and drama at the college. "You go over and over it, trying to figure out how the outcome could have been different, could have been changed."
It tells the story of a mother and daughter (played by Carol Easter and Mary Henslee) caught in a deadly struggle.
"I even say the same things she says," Henslee said of the daughter's character. "I understand where Jessie is coming from. She's tormented and, in her world, there is no way out of her pain."
Bonnie McCathran is assistant director, Brandon Ayersis property master and lighting technician, Michael Easter is stage manager and Martin Scudder handles set decorating and construction.
Author, artist present saga series
ABINGDON - Award-winning Shawsville author Sharyn McCrumb has teamed up with Bristol area artist Charles Vess for the first of six issues of a series called "The Book of Ballads and Sagas," a publication from Vess' Green Man Press.
McCrumb, whose current paperback, "She Walks These Hills," is on the New York Times best-seller list, wrote a version of "Thomas the Rhymer" for the first edition. She and Vess will be at Main Street Books at 152 E. Main St. in Abingdon from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday to autograph copies of it.
Vess, whose work has ranged from illustrations of Shakespeare plays to "Spiderman" comics, uses intricate pen and ink drawings with interpretations of ballads and sagas by well-known writers. His series will be published in six bi-monthly issues, starting with the one being premiered here Saturday.
McCrumb is the author of 12 novels and many short stories.
"I take brightly colored scraps of legends, ballads, fragments of rural life and local tragedy, and I piece them together into a complex whole that tells not only a story but also a deeper truth about the culture of the mountain South," she said.
For further information, call 628-4506.
by CNB