Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 24, 1994 TAG: 9401240025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ Joe Vipperman, campaign chairman, offered an additional thank you.
"I thank the Lord that we aren't conducting this meeting by candlelight," he said, after the Rev. George Bowers delivered the invocation.
Vipperman is president of Appalachian Power Co.
Earlier in the week, Apco had asked customers to cut back their power use to avert blackouts.
Confused loyalties
It was supposed to be a day for Roanoke City Council to praise the Virginia Tech football team for beating Indiana University 45-20 in the Independence Bowl.
Council was set to adopt a resolution congratulating Tech for the victory.
So why was a guy standing there in the council chamber wearing an Indiana sweat shirt?
Councilman Delvis "Mac" McCadden, a Tech graduate, was taken aback. "Do I see what I thought I saw?" he asked.
Indeed, it was an Indiana shirt.
Brian Jones, who wore the shirt, is an avid Indiana fan, having grown up in the Hoosier state. But Jones, who helps run the sound system in the council chamber, assured McCadden he had no intention of detracting from Tech's day of honor. He said he had no idea that council planned to honor Tech.
"It was not planned. I just happened to wear it," he said.
As it turned out, action on the resolution praising Tech had to be postponed a week because the snow and ice prevented university athletic officials from traveling to Roanoke.
Close call
Sam Lionberger remembered several cold-weather tips from his boating safety training class. But, he admits, he forgot the first one.
Lionberger, president of Lionberger Construction, experienced firsthand the dangers of cold water Jan. 16 when he went, alone, to work on his boat at Smith Mountain Lake. While he was trying to break the ice around the hull of his boat, Lionberger lost his footing and slipped into the icy water.
"I broke the first rule of boating by being there alone, I know that," Lionberger said.
His boat doesn't have a ladder, but he managed to scramble onto another one nearby. He hurried back to his car, cranked up the heat and used his car phone to call his wife. She called a friend who lives at the lake. The friend drove Lionberger to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where he thawed out in the hypothermia treatment area.
"I was scared, but fortunately my safety training paid off. I'm very lucky," Lionberger said.
Eagle eyes
The Boy Scouts are casting an eagle eye on Western Virginia - in search of former Eagle Scouts.
"There are hundreds here," says Dan Clifton, executive director of the Boy Scouts of America - Blue Ridge Mountains Council in Roanoke. "I run into them all the time. They were always intending to [get involved again], but they haven't gotten around to it."
So now, in hopes of finding some new adult volunteers, the Scouts are mounting a formal search for former Eagles in Western Virginia - and they've enlisted three prominent ex-Eagles to lead the way.
They are former Rep. Jim Olin, who made Eagle in Troop 13 in Kenilworth, Ill., in 1936; former Rep. Caldwell Butler, who was an Eagle in Troop 17 in Roanoke in 1941; and former Del. Steve Agee, an Eagle in Troop 236 in Roanoke in 1967.
If you're an ex-Eagle, either at a troop here or somewhere else, write: Eagle Search Committee, P.O. Box 7606, Roanoke 24019. Send them your name and address, plus the year, Scout council and city where you made Eagle.
by CNB