Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 19, 1993 TAG: 9307190248
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Randy Van Winkle and Marsha Beck - the carnival workers at the Salem Fair who met on the Gravitron ride last year and wanted to get married - were fired July 8.
Their boss, Griff Gillette, who owns Griff's BBQ Stand and several others on the midway, said he fired the couple because "they were complaining too much and not working enough."
Van Winkle and Beck had been with Gillette for a few months. Gillette said he fired them in the afternoon, and sometime during the night they left the fairgrounds without a word to anyone. Such is carnival life.
In an emergency, he didn't choke
Vernon Taylor, a mail handler at the main post office, recently received a certificate of appreciation, a letter of commendation and gift certificates from postal officials after he saved a co-worker from choking.
Taylor and a few other postal employees were eating lunch in early May when Ernestine Whittaker started choking on some food.
Taylor, who's been at the post office for 18 years, performed the Heimlich maneuver on Whittaker.
He said this was the first time he's used the maneuver, and he wouldn't hesitate to help someone else. "I didn't have time to think about it. It was a quick reaction."
Taylor is a fanatic when it comes to emergency-and-rescue television shows, but said he never thought he'd have to act. Although he's never taken a CPR course, he's watched life-saving measures being administered on TV and has learned by "looking and listening."
That's going to change, though. Taylor is planning to take a CPR course "so I can be a professional."
A guesstimate just won't do
Rep. Bob Goodlatte wants to be certain the decision on extending Amtrak\ service to Roanoke and Southwest Virginia is based on accurate cost estimates.
Earlier estimates put the cost of the equipment at $60 million with an operating subsidy of about $10 million a year for the proposed route from New York to Atlanta.
But Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said the estimates may be too high. He said accurate data are needed to determine whether the proposed route is feasible.
Goodlatte has sent a letter to Graham Claytor, Amtrak president, requesting a comprehensive evaluation of the route and the cost for bringing passenger service to central and Western Virginia.
Goodlatte has sent a letter to Claytor specifically requesting "detailed determination of the capital costs, achievable ridership and schedules, expected revenues and operating costs with a view toward initiating this new service."
by CNB