Lexington & Country
Contents
Diversity
“Randolph Street United Methodist Church remains home for all”
- Sophie Kidd
p. 5
Advocacy
“Local woman speaks out for unwanted shelter animals”
- Catherine Arrix
p. 9
Business
“The missing links in the mountains”
- Jack Donahue
p. 13
Community
“Heliotrope hops into the beer scene”
- Carson Allsteadt
p. 17
“Bluegrass is tradition for local disc jockey”
- Jackson Sharman
p. 19
“A tough blow to youth football”
- Charlotte Freeman
p. 21
Lexington & Country Staff Head Editors and Designers
Rachel Hicks, senior journalism major and Russian language and culture minor at Washington and Lee University.
Sutton Travis, senior journalism and English double major at Washington and Lee University.
Contributing writers
Carson Allsteadt
Catherine Arrix
Jack Donahue
Charlotte Freeman
Sophie Kidd
Jackson Sharman
Washington and Lee University Department of Journalism and Mass Communications
Stories written by students in the Introduction to Reporting course
Edited and designed by students in the Editing for Print & Online Media course
Spring is blossoming in front of the Randolph Street United Methodist Church. Photo
by Rachel Hicks.
Blurb about church here.
Diversity
Randolph Street United Methodist Church remains home for all Lexington church continues
to preach inclusion.
By Sophie Kidd
The worldwide United Methodist Church voted to tighten its ban on gay clergy and same-sex marriages last month.
Despite the verdict, Lexington’s Randolph Street United Methodist Church remains inclusive.
Karen Cauthern has been attending the church her entire life.
“I was born and raised here. My whole family has been in Lexington forever and a day,” she said. Her sister, Michelle
Cauthern, takes Karen to church every Sunday. With few living family members left, the two now only have each other and the congregation. Although both women grew up going to church every Sunday, Michelle says that she only recently returned to the church after taking seven years away from religion to find herself.
When asked if they agree with the recent decision made by the UMC, Karen responded promptly, “I don’t.”
She went on to say that her church “would never turn anyone away.”
Michelle considered the question, then carefully said, “people are individuals and we as people should not judge.”
As a historically black church, Randolph Street has always valued inclusivity.
On its website, the church describes the congregation as “people of multiple cultures, dressed both casually and formally. We enjoy great diversity of thought and
background, so you’ll find you are welcome no matter where you are coming from.”
Rev. Reginald Early, the pastor at Randolph Street, is unafraid to voice his opinions both in church and online.
His Twitter feed is composed of Tweets condemning the Trump administration, racism, bigotry and anti-LGBTQ
sentiments. His profile also features posts celebrating the power of God and community.
Across the country, members of the UMC are torn between standing with their personal convictions or remaining with the church. For many, the decision remains unclear.
The UMC will begin to implement the plan
in 2020, which means churches and members alike have limited time to choose what to do.
For now, people like Karen remain hopeful that the decision will not tear her community apart.
“As long as we have each other, Randolph Street will always be my church and my home,” she said.
Two wreaths hang on Lexington’s Randolph Street United Methodist Church’s front doors. Photo by Rachel Hicks.
Luanne, a 2-year-old hound at the Rockbridge Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Photo by Rachel Hicks.
Advocacy
Local woman speaks out for unwanted shelter animals
The Rockbridge Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is focusing on spaying and neutering animals in its shelter instead of euthanizing them.
By Catherine Arrix
Today, the Rockbridge Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has kill rates of about 4 percent for dogs and 12 percent for cats. But in 2014, the SPCA had kill rates in the range of 60 to 70 percent for dogs and cats that weren’t being adopted. Lexington resident Mary Harvey-Halseth was alarmed by the high euthanasia rates.
Harvey-Halseth first learned about the high kill rates in 2014, when a law student who was renting her property was interested in fostering a dog from the local pound. But fostering was not an option.
An avid animal-lover who owns three dogs and a cat, Harvey-Halseth found a cause that was near to her heart. Using her background as a Lexington City Council member, Harvey-Halseth began asking questions about what was happening at the SPCA.
Harvey-Halseth found that besides a lack of foster programs, the SPCA had high euthanasia rates.
She said at that point in time, the “mindset of the SPCA was not to save.”
Harvey-Halseth said that while Rockbridge County is not an ideal location for adoption, she was passionate about making a change.
She, along with a group of fellow Rockbridge County activists, began to draw attention to the SPCA’s high kill rates.
Harvey-Halseth discovered that the state government paid the SPCA whenever the shelter brought in a new rescue animal.
“All that matters to them… is what goes through the door,” she said.
But SPCA Executive Director Tara Rodi prides herself on the shelter’s efforts to change.
Rodi disputed the idea that the SPCA “kills off” animals to make space for new ones. She said some animals have
been at the shelter for a couple of years.
Rodi and her staff were frustrated when HarveyHalseth and her activist group began fishing around for answers.
The activist group circulated a petition in 2016 to demand better care and treatment for the animals in the Rockbridge SPCA. The petition gained 253 signatures from Rockbridge County residents. Since the petition, the SPCA has made changes. The organization now
promotes what is officially called a “no kill” rate for dogs.
Rodi called this an attempt to “help reduce the population” in a way that is morally just. Harvey-Halseth still proposes new ideas for the shelter. She suggested working with inmates at the Rockbridge Regional Jail, which is almost next door to the shelter, to train the animals and give them social interaction.
Rodi said she “can’t speak for [our county jail],” but was not confident in that plan being successful.
The activist group and SPCA directors still do not see eye-to-eye on all the shelter’s policies. But they do agree that the animals have benefited from this political conflict.
Rodi said that the main objective is to “make sure the shelter is full,” while still providing the greatest amount of care to the animals.
“We’re not putting down animals because we don’t have space,” she said.
Conway Twitty, a Treeing Walker Coonhound at the Rockbridge SPCA. Photo by Rachel Hicks.
View of a portion of Vista Links Golf Course in March 2019 with House Mountain. Photo by Rachel Hicks.
Business
The missing links in the mountains
Once breathtaking, now blighted by a lack of maintenance.
By Jack Donahue
Tucked away on the west flank of the Blue Ridge Mountains lies a hidden gem: The Buena Vista Links. A former beauty, this golf course is now experiencing a period of neglect and poor condition.
The 18-hole, a spectacularly designed Rick Jacobson course, featuring hilly terrain and breathtaking panoramic views, is now blighted by a lack of maintenance.
The construction of the links and the surrounding planned housing was a good economic bet for Buena Vista in 2004. Then the Great Recession hit in 2008. Officials bet the city, putting up their municipal buildings as collateral on the bond used to finance the project.
Buena Vista has missed payments on this $9.2 million bond multiple times. As a result, there has been a long legal battle between the city, which is in default, and the ACA Financial Group.
Meanwhile, the fairways, greens and hazards alike have all fallen into disrepair.
Edward Armentrout III, a golf professional at the links, said the course is allotted $400,000 a year for maintenance.
According to Golf Course Industry magazine, the average non-capital course spends $750,000 annually on maintenance. Armentrout said the Buena Vista Links was originally intended to be a nice gated community of houses with access to
an excellent golf course. Construction came to an early halt when the financial crisis hit.
More than 10 years later, Armentrout still worries about the future of the course.
“It’s been on my mind for very many years now, and well, this is my livelihood,” he said.
Russell Bateson, a local and frequent golfer of the links, moved to Virginia 11 years ago.
He came from Santa Cruz, California, with
his wife. They were motivated to move by the cheap land and good golf. He said he “fell in love with the links.”
When he first arrived, the greens were fast, the fairways were clean and the course was generally in great condition. The more he played the course, the more he liked it.
Bateson said the course used to be extremely popular. Tee times had to be booked in advance for the weekends and
carts were always out. But he said that three or four years ago, the course stopped watering the fairways. The conditions got so bad that Bateson remembered having to drive into the rough to avoid the pure dirt fairways.
Both Armentrout and Bateson said they hope for a return of good conditions. But until then they will continue to work and play at the haggard mountain course.
Different colors of grass on a hill looking down at the Vista Links Golf Course. Photo by Rachel Hicks.
Construction is underway at Heliotrope Brewery, which is located at 128 S. Main Street in Lexington. Photo by Carson Allsteadt.
Community
Heliotrope hops into the beer scene
The newest addition to Rockbridge County’s slew of local breweries is scheduled to open on South Main Street by July 4.
By Carson Allsteadt
Agrowing market for local beer makes Erik Jones, the coowner of a new microbrewery in Lexington, hopeful for his business’ future.
Jones and his wife, Jenefer Davies, are scheduled to open their brewery by July 4. Heliotrope Brewery will be located next door to the Rockbridge Regional Library on South Main Street. Jones plans to use local ingredients to make craft beers.
A heliotrope is a flower and a shade of purple. The word literally means “turns to the sun” in Greek.
“Our whole ethos for the brewery is to brew as locally as possible, but also to get
ingredients from farmers markets,” Jones said. “We figured that we would be turning to the sun, in the sense that we’d be following the seasons.”
In the past, larger regional breweries dominated the beer industry. Recently, various smaller-scale beermakers such as Brew Ridge Taps, Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company and Great Valley Farm Brewery have opened and flourished in the Rockbridge area.
Jones said he believes people are now more interested in locally brewed beer.
“The beer industry is going through a correction right now, but it is sort of in our favor,” he said.
Jones is from Portland,
Oregon. He worked in the marketing departments for the Oregon Symphony and the Oregon Valley Theater for 27 years while simultaneously experimenting with home brewing.
After deciding to leave his arts career to pursue brewing, Jones began working at Blue Lab Brewing Co., a former brewery in Lexington, and volunteering at Chaos Mountain Brewing in Roanoke.
Soon after, he attended brewing school in Vermont, where he earned a degree from the American Brewers Guild. Jones said he was interning at a brewery with about 60 brewers when he realized he was “too old to start off as the number 60 brewer.”
“Our whole ethos for the brewery is to brew as locally as possible, but also to get ingredients from farmers markets.”
From there, he followed what he called the “inevitable road” and chose to open his own brewery.
Heliotrope will fill the space where Lexington Bicycle Shop was formerly located. The building was demolished last summer and has been undergoing renovations since December.
Heliotrope will start by producing just five barrels, or 10 kegs, of beer, Jones said. His current production plan calls for him to brew in those barrels once or twice a week.
He said being a small company gives him the flexibility to brew whatever he wants, whenever he wants it.
Jones said he has no interest in being on grocery store shelves or expanding outside
of the area.
“I don’t want to get big,” he said.
Jones will use locally-grown malt to craft Heliotrope’s beer. The brewery will primarily focus on his beer, but it will also serve pizzas made using ingredients from farmers markets in Virginia.
The site will have a casual environment, with seating in the front for customers to enjoy their beer and pizza. The beer barrels will be located in the back. Additional outdoor seating will be located on the front porch and in the alleyway to the left of the brewery.
Heliotrope has faced hurdles along the way.
Jones said he and Davies spent the majority of last year working to finalize fire code solutions for the old building. This was particularly difficult, he said, because there are three apartments upstairs, the building is old and the
brewing process involves fire and dangerous chemicals.
A brewer must have a federal brewer’s license to brew beer.
Jones said applying for the license was no easy feat.
“We submitted all of the paperwork literally the night before the government shutdown,” Jones said.
Attaining this license usually takes two or three months. Jones said the federal government shutdown, which lasted from Dec. 22 to Jan. 25, added about a month and a half to that typical length of time.
But Jones doesn’t think the delay will put the brewery off schedule for its projected opening date. He hopes to get his license in May. Brewing enough beers for the brewery to be ready to open will take between six to eight weeks.
“We will probably still get [the license], I would imagine, by the time we’re ready to brew,” Jones said.
Bluegrass is tradition for local disc jockey
Dorsey Hostetter has hosted “Southern Pride Bluegrass” for 19 years.
By Jackson Sharman
Students run most of the radio shows on 91.5 WLUR, Washington and Lee University’s radio station. They usually host the shows for a semester, or sometimes a year. But Dorsey Hostetter has conducted his weekly radio show, “Southern Pride Bluegrass,” for 19 years.
Hostetter is the archetypal Rockbridge County resident in many ways. Wearing an old striped green collared shirt, jeans and a camo Virginia State Police baseball cap, the 63-year-old
leaves no doubt about his identity.
“I’ve never left Rockbridge County, and I don’t plan to,” Hostetter said.
Hostetter divides his Sunday evening show (7 to 10 p.m.) into three segments. Roughly the first half-hour is bluegrass, then one hour of gospel music.
The last hour and a half are bluegrass songs that listeners call in and request.
When Hostetter gets a phone call to the show, an orange light starts blinking on the wall across from him. He picks up the phone, pen in hand. It’s not hard to tell that he knows many of the callers, most of
whom he addresses by their name or “brother.”
More than once he finishes a call with some variation of, “Alright, love you too, man.”
He says that he has anywhere from 15 to 20 people call in during a show and request songs, though he added that many more people he
has met through the years tune in. Listeners include W&L students and Lexington and Rockbridge residents, as well as people Hostetter has met at festivals and other places where he has played or listened to bluegrass.
The bearded, proudly self-proclaimed
Dorsey Hostetter working as a DJ. Photo by Jackson Sharman.
mountain man enjoys the bond he has with his listeners. The people who tune into his show are a big reason he runs it.
“If I can play one song that does good for one person, that’s worth it all for me,” he said.
Hostetter has a genuine love for bluegrass. Playing bluegrass runs in his family: his father and one of his uncles played guitar, while another uncle played the fiddle.
Hostetter said that when he was seven years old, he would scrape a butter knife along a guitar that his father placed in front of him, creating the effect of a slide guitar. By 16, he was in a bluegrass band, something he has continued to do off and on for decades.
Hostetter said that bluegrass has taken
him all over the country. He’s played in Georgia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee.
Locally, Hostetter has participated in festivals in Buena Vista, including the Maury River Fiddlers Convention, which will occur for the 26th year this June. He played the standing bass in a band called Diana and the Tabasco Boys.
“Hot and spicy bluegrass,” Diana Schofield says, with a laugh.
Schofield, who owns Rockbridge Music on Main Street, initially introduced Hostetter to radio. Schofield thought he would be a good host, with his genuine personality and knowledge of bluegrass.
Hostetter started out at a local radio station in town. He transitioned to WLUR in 2000 when then-manager Ben Losi asked him if he would be interested in hosting his show on the W&L-based station.
Hostetter has worked in factories for over 20 years in Buena Vista. He said that bluegrass music always helps take his mind off whatever is going on in life.
“If I’m stressed out, I listen to a song and start singing it and forget about whatever is going on,” Hostetter said.
He describes bluegrass as a pure art form that can express the struggles people have in life.
Hostetter said he deeply identifies with the music because it was born in the mountains, like him.
“I find comfort in the mountains. I find safety in the mountains,” he said. “Bluegrass is genuine music. You can
tell it’s true by the way the person sings it.”
His connection with bluegrass is also deeply tied to his faith.
“The Bible tells us music is soothing to the soul,” Hostetter said.
“To me, bluegrass and Christianity are based on tradition.”
He carries on this tradition at Victory Baptist Church in Buena Vista, where he plays music and occasionally delivers sermon-like messages.
Having a strong faith, playing bluegrass and being kind to people:
Hostetter is not a complicated man. He is thankful for what he considers to be his blessings.
“I appreciate they let me come over here and do this,” Hostetter said about hosting “Southern Pride Bluegrass” on WLUR.
“The Bible tells us little things do much.”
A tough blow to youth football
Rising concerns about concussions have impacted participation in the Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization’s youth football teams.
By Charlotte Freeman
Enrollment in football for 13-and-under players in Rockbridge County is dropping because of the danger of concussions.
Darrell Plogger, the coordinator of the Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization, said parents are so worried about football concussions that the falling enrollment in RARO teams for children up to 13 years old could make it hard to continue the program this fall.
Recently, RARO has had only a couple players get concussions each season. But two years ago, there was a total of about five concussions in the senior league of 12-and-13-yearolds, he said.
Plogger said one of the main reasons concussions were so high that season was because of the greater number of larger 13-yearolds.
“Every time something comes up about concussions, it seems to be getting worse, so we take it really seriously,” he said. “I’ve had an EMT at all of our football games for probably 20 years.”
He said there is always the case of a seventh-grade student who has matured faster physically than his classmates, leaving him in a completely different weight
and height category than his teammates and opponents.
In past years, RARO had 8-year-olds through 10-year-olds on one team and 11-year-olds through 13-year-olds on a separate team. The organization knew the age range was too large for both teams, but they needed it to be to have enough kids to make a team.
“Every time something comes up about concussions, it seems to be getting worse, so we take it really seriously.”
RARO separated 8-yearolds into their own developmental league three years ago in order to create
a safer environment for the players.
“We put uniforms on them and let them, I call it, ‘hug each other’ a little bit to let them get used to the contact,” Plogger said. “That’s worked really well.”
RARO’s organization is the only place where middleschoolers can compete in football in Rockbridge
County. Neither Lylburn Downing Middle School nor Maury River Middle School have football teams.
Plogger said the lower participation levels will eventually lead RARO teams to play outside of Rockbridge County.
“Eventually, it’ll all be travel,” Plogger said. “The numbers will just force us to do that.”
The RARO board is considering joining with Alleghany and Craig counties in order for their young football players to enjoy a full season, he said.
“The set rules that they have in place are very similar to what we already have as far as weight-limit restrictions,” Plogger said.
The Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization football field. Photo by Charlotte Freeman.
