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The Roanoke Star-Sentinel Community | News | Per spective
6/6/08
Contact us: (540) 400-0990 info@theroanokestar.com
Banger Rally P11– The ‘Big Apple to Big Easy’ rally brought some colorful characters to Roanoke recently, with one group stopping off at Annie Moore’s.
A Good Run P9– The Patrick Henry Lacrosse team made it all the way to the state finals, but lost to a strong Chantilly team.
Bowers: no more camps on council Mayor-elect David Bowers told his fellow Kiwanians on Wednesday that he wants to work with other members of Roanoke City Council, even when they may not see eye to eye on issues like a downtown amphitheater or development on Mill Mountain. Bowers, who will take office as mayor for a third term (but the first Bowers time in eight years) next month, said a recent conversation with current Vice Mayor David Trinkle was encouraging. Trinkle said he wanted, “no more camps” on city council and Bowers said he agreed with that sentiment: “there will be no more camps on this city council,” vowed the veteran politician, “strike the tents.” In general Bowers told the audience that he was, “very encouraged about moving forward with a new day for Roanoke City.” Bowers said he had spoken
TheRoanokeStar.com
Old Southwest awarded for ‘Food with Friends’
Tornado rips through Roanoke
It started two years ago when Tim Taylor and Bob Clement were thinking of ways to engage their neighborhood of Old Southwest. “In essence, just to get to know who our neighbors are,” said Taylor, the Holiday Parlor Tour Chair for Old Southwest, Inc. So, they imported an event they had in a former neighborhood in Northern Virginia called “Food with Friends.” The idea was to invite the entire neighborhood for food and fun and offer an opportunity to meet and mingle with the people they lived near. “What better way to share a meal than to share it with a neighbor,” Taylor said. They had 90 people at the first event, and have averaged between 35 to 75 since then. “People who know one another look out for one another and take care of one another and that’s what neighborhoods are all about,” said Clement, Neighborhood Services Coordinator for Roanoke City. The event is hosted monthly by a different resident who chooses a new theme for each gathering. The event has become so popu-
Photos by Lawson Koeppel
O
fficials at the National Weather Service finally called the storm that left a swath of damage through Roanoke a tornado, albeit classifying it the weakest category, an EF-0, with winds between 70 and 80 miles per hour. That fits the descriptions residents gave of funnel clouds and the tell-tale freight train sound. The storm tore down trees and power lines from Colonial Avenue to the base of Mill Mountain.
> CONTINUED P2: Bowers
Work crews were still cleaning up Wednesday, sawing limbs from the tops
of cars, replacing telephone poles and cleaning up downed powerlines.
> CONTINUED P3: Neighborhood
U.S. Military invades Roanoke Emerging Artists
series celebrates its first anniversary
Va. Heights Walks P8– Virginia Heights Elementary held their first ever walkathon May 30. The fundraiser garnered $3,000 for PE equipment.
Free Fallin’ P5– John Robinson takes us for a soar over Eagle Rock in Botetourt.
Photo by Gene Marano Photos by Stuart Revercomb and Gene Marrano
A United States Air Force MH-53 Pave Low takes off from Rivers Edge Park in South Roanoke. Below, visitors get a tour of the soon-to-be-retired helicopter. The United States Air Force likes to train helicopter crews in and around mountainous landscapes when possible, in large part because that’s the type of terrain they will face in places like Afghanistan. When a venue used in Asheville, North Carolina wasn’t available, the 20th Special Operations Squadron from the 1st Special Operations wing came north from Hurlburt Field in Florida to Roanoke on Friday. They landed one of several choppers on a soccer field at the River’s Edge complex after making several passes. Meanwhile, in the old Victory Stadium parking lot support crew members that came north from Florida watched from the ground as pilots and navigators negotiated the hills that sur-
Sheila Umberger, River Laker and Brian Sal Corral of the Roanoke Library.
The Roanoke City library tor Sheila Umberger that the system is celebrating the first Emerging Artists series could anniversary of its Emerging be one way to attract a youngArtists series, a monthly of- er, more diverse group of fering of music and visual art people to the library, exposing from some of the area’s lesser them to other amenities like known, but very talented, peo- a teen area at the same time. ple that are looking for a toe- Umberger, who rose through hold in the artistic landscape. the library’s ranks over the Once a month the main past 26 years, came from branch, with the help of a household where her ARTS local companies, holds an father was a graphic artopen house attracting an ist. “I grew up thinking eclectic mix of artsy types and everyone’s father could draw,” the plain curious. The visual she said while discussing the art remains in place all month whimsically-named “one-yearon the mezzanine level, and in since-we-started-celebrationsome cases listening stations, extravaganza” that will be held have featured tunes from mu- at the main library branch on sicians that have played as part Saturday, June 14. From 11 a.m. of the series. to 4 p.m. all of the visual artIt wasn’t hard for development coordinator River Laker > CONTINUED to convince libraries direc- P3: Artists
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round the Star City. The 20th Special Ops Squadron then spent the better part of a week conducting training exercises in Southwestern Virginia and West Virginia, using the MH-53 “Pave Low.”
That came about after clearing the mission with city officials and alerting others that might be affected by large military > CONTINUED P3: Military
]