Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510120013
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Oct. 7: Roanoke City Council OKs spending $100,000 for a proposed sculpture, called "Standing Figure," in the atrium of the city's new courthouse. It will be a 6-foot-wide structure of stainless steel rods, will stand on a 10-foot base and feature symbols of the Roanoke, Southwest Virginia and state judicial systems.
Oct. 8: Carl Absher of Bartlett Tree Experts rescues a cat that's been in an oak tree at the residence of Charlie Williamson of North Roanoke County for five days. County volunteer firefighters tried to rescue the feline earlier, but their latter wasn't tall enough.
Oct. 11: The Salvation Army announces it will move a controversial battered women's shelter out of its Salem Avenue building that also houses a prerelease program for male federal inmates by Nov. 1.
Oct. 22: The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors enters into an agreement with Roanoke City that allows city and county law enforcement officers to make arrests in each other's jurisdictions for drunken driving, reckless driving, hit-and-run, driving with a suspended license and habitual offenders. The agreement will become effective Nov. 1.
Oct. 25: The Harrison Heritage and Cultural Center, now the Harrison Museum of African American Culture is dedicated.
Oct. 30: Sandy Garst, a Roanoke science teacher, and Elizabeth Lee, Garst's principal at Madison Junior High School, witness the launching of the space shuttle Challenger as part of a NASA campaign to improve science education. Garst is one of 20 East Coast teachers to watch the launch with their principals.
Oct. 30: Fourteen Roanoke County bus drivers show their support for a driver at Northside Junior High School who was "mooned" on her bus on two previous occasions by two students. The drivers are protesting because the students were still allowed to ride the bus the next day.
25 years ago
Oct. 9: Clinton Howlett, a pilot for Great Western Airlines of Tulsa, Okla., makes his second emergency landing at Woodrum Airport after the left engine of his Super Beechcraft plane catches fire at 3,000 feet out of Lynchburg on a return mail flight from Baltimore. On Feb. 1, 1969, he made a wheels-up crash-landing following landing-gear trouble.
Oct. 14: Voting 5-1, the Roanoke School Board approves a new policy allowing students who are actually made ill by their school to transfer to healthier environments. A student can ask for a transfer for medical reasons, "supported by medical opinion," with the request being handled by a committee of school principals and coordinators headed by the director of pupil personnel services.
Oct. 22: After 59 years, Lee Junior High School in downtown Roanoke closes. It will be demolished and replaced by a federal office building. Students and faculty have been reassigned to the new James Madison Junior High School in Southwest Roanoke. (The Poff Federal Building now occupies the site Lee Junior once did.)
50 years ago
Oct. 3: Roanoke police apprehend two German POWs who had escaped 19 days earlier from a Michigan camp. They had been walking and riding boxcars in a southerly direction, hoping to reach the Mexican border and eventually make it to South America.
Oct. 6: Plans are announced for a $100,000 Roanoke City Health Center that will include the city health department's administration offices and numerous clinics.
Oct. 8: Creating a Roanoke Symphony Orchestra is discussed by about 30 people attending a meeting at the Patrick Henry Hotel. G.C. Stein, who is on leave from the faculty of Southern Methodist University, submitted tentative plans for a year-round program that would be conducted mainly through the city schools.
Oct. 13: About 120 black Scouts and leaders from Buchanan, Roanoke and Salem troops take part in the "Negro Scout-O-Ree" at Washington Park. The first event of its kind to be held in Roanoke, it features a cookout, inspection, games, relays and a campfire.
Oct. 20: Rep. Clifton A. Woodrum informs Gov. Colgate Darden that he will retire from Congress on Dec. 31, not completing his term that ends in January 1947. Darden must now call a special election to fill the vacancy in the Sixth District.
Oct. 20: N.W. Pugh Sr., president of the N.W. Pugh Co., announces that the company's department store at Campbell Avenue and First Street Southwest will be remodeled and get another sales floor. The cost is estimated at $240,000.
PAST TENSE is a monthly feature compiled by Melvin E. Matthews Jr. to help readers recall past events in the Roanoke Valley. Information is gathered from past issues of the newspaper.
by CNB