ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609230010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
Wytheville band plans fall rehearsals
WYTHEVILLE - The Wytheville Community College Concert Band directed by Jack White will start weekly fall rehearsals at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the band room at George Wythe High School.
Adults from the area are invited to join the group for rehearsals each Tuesday night. There is no cost except for those getting college credit.
In previous years, the band has given concerts in Independence, Galax, Marion, Rocky Gap and Bluefield, W.Va., as well as two annual concerts in Wytheville and performances at the college's graduation ceremony each May and Wytheville Chautauqua Festival each June. Last fall, it also performed at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
White, a former band director at George Wythe who retired here after being director of bands at Elon College in North Carolina, put the band together with the idea of providing adults an opportunity to continue enjoying participation in an instrumental group when they are no longer in school.
Last year, the band had 85 members and played to crowds as large as several thousand people, that many having attended the performance at the closing event of this year's Chautauqua Festival.
Further information is available by calling Dan Jones at Wytheville Community College, at 223-4736 or toll-free (800) 468-1195, extension 4736.
Wythe County speeds study on jail options
WYTHEVILLE - Wythe County has decided to speed up its study on whether to build a new jail or join the New River Valley Regional Jail Authority in constructing a facility at Dublin now planned for the counties of Pulaski, Giles, Grayson and Bland and the city of Radford.
Earlier, the Wythe County Board of Supervisors contracted with the architectural firm of Moseley/Harris for data to help make the decision on how to replace the county's obsolete jail. But the board learned at last week's meeting that the firm will miss its deadline on reporting the information.
The board voted 6-1 to renegotiate its contract with Moseley/Harris to allow the county to make a study of its own on the cost and procedures of joining the regional jail project. Mark Munsey, one of the two supervisors on the board's jail study committee, warned that time is running out to become part of the regional project.
Munsey and Clay Lawrence, the other supervisor on the study committee, and a representative of Floyd County all sat in on the authority's last meeting in Radford Sept. 6. Both Wythe and Floyd counties had been a part of the original regional jail planning, but both dropped out along the way.
Committee to plan courthouse centennial
PULASKI - The Old Courthouse Centennial Committee will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the courthouse's New River Room to continue plans for the courthouse's 100th birthday next month.
A birthday banner will be mounted across the front of the courthouse to celebrate its birthday as part of Count Pulaski Day.
Cakes donated by county groups will be received for display from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. to be joined with a large centerpiece cake depicting the courthouse. Cakes will be arranged around it like squares in a quilt, and be on public view from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. during speeches by local officials and other participants in the festivities. Then they will be served with punch to the public.
Courthouse tours are scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tour guides and other volunteers are needed. Volunteers can come to Tuesday's meeting or call Nancy Burchett at 980-7705.
Water supply hearing canceled
WYTHEVILLE - A public hearing by a joint legislative committee studying drinking water supply problems in Southwest Virginia, previously announced for Sept. 30 in Wytheville, has been canceled.
Those from the New River Valley and nearby localities who want to address the committee can attend one of two other public hearings Sept. 30, at 10 a.m. at Clinch Valley College in Wise or at 2 p.m. at Southwest Virginia Community College near Richlands. They should first call Chad Hudson at House Committee Operations, telephone (804) 786-7681, to get on the list of speakers.
The committee will make recommendations on potential funding methods to solve water deficiencies in Southwest Virginia, including the proper state role in helping with costs.
Pulaski teen's death brings 3rd indictment
WYTHEVILLE - A third person has been indicted on charges of murder and abduction in the death of former Pulaski County High School student Ricky Lee Coleman .
A special grand jury recently indicted Erik Matthew Wimmer, now 18 but a juvenile when Coleman's body was found last January in a creek. An autopsy showed Coleman died from exposure with alcohol intoxication having played a role.
Already indicted on murder and abduction charges are Jason Hibbs, 19, and Eric Ball, 21, both from the Max Meadows area where Coleman was living at the time. The prosecution hopes to try all three defendants together, but attorneys for Ball and Hibbs are seeking separate trials.
Earlier testimony indicated that Coleman attended a party at the Hibbs home, began damaging property and had a fight with Hibbs, and was passed out in the yard later when he was loaded into a car and dumped in a rural section of Wythe County where his body was later found.
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