Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511200063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Or is it "That Good Old Song of Wahoowah''?
We didn't know, and to make sure we were thoroughly accurate in our coverage of the Virginia Tech/University of Virginia game, we had to make sure we gave UVa's alma mater its due.
We asked the Wahoo news office for the final word.
They asked the university's historian.
Thirty minutes later, the news office faxed us a copy of "The Good Ole Song" - with "ole" crossed out.
So if you come from old Virginia,
Where all is bright and gay.
Let's all join hands and give a yell,
And sing the song the right way!
Quarter-million-dollar horse
Roanoke millionaire Peter Via might finally have backed the right horse.
Via and his brother, Edward, contributed $210,000 to Republican candidates in this month's state legislative races; both local candidates they supported lost. But Peter Via's Fox Grape Farm Inc. spent even more for an American saddlebred horse last month.
Tattersalls, a Lexington, Ky., sales pavilion, issued a news release saying that the $275,000 Via paid for chestnut gelding Callaway's Forecaster was the highest price ever paid for a saddlebred at its facility. The horse is half-brother to world champion Callaway's Huckleberry Finn.
Via's wife said he would have no comment.
Virginia saddlebred horse leaders said that Via, son of the late philanthropist Marion Via, owns a 5-gaited championship mare, too, and boards his horses with his trainer in Kentucky. His mother is said to have been more interested in hunter-jumpers.
The hospitality flows
Boones Mill was glad to accept some Republican hospitality this month.
The Franklin County town has severe water problems, and Boones Mill leaders declared a state of emergency in October.
The town's 60-year-old water system had finally given out, they said.
So Councilmen Phil Randolph and Kevin Goode, along with Mayor Steve Palmer, decided to put pressure on the governor's office to see if the town could get some state help.
Randolph sent a fax scribbled in his own handwriting to Gov. George Allen for five days in a row proclaiming Boones Mill's dire straits.
The governor's office reacted, asking a team of engineers to inspect the town's water lines.
Yes, the team said, the town's system needed to be replaced.
The town would have to fill out some long grant-application forms, file them with the state, then wait in line for funds - a process that usually takes months.
But this was an important election year for Republicans.
Three days before the election, Allen was on a late campaign swing through the county.
Just four days after the town filed its application with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, Allen stopped by Boones Mill Town Hall and announced that the town will get a $442,000 state grant to build a new water system.
"We timed things just right," Randolph said later.
Old Stonewall topples
The new Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Roanoke is an architectural winner, although some alumni and neighbors would have preferred to keep the old building.
Jackson has won a statewide award for architectural creativity and design in school buildings. It happened in the exhibition of school architecture at the Virginia School Boards Association's recent convention in Williamsburg.
Motley & Associates of Roanoke designed the new Jackson school.
The school's cafeteria and gymnasium are being renovated, but the 72-year-old classroom building was torn down and is being replaced with a new structure. The project is costing $6 million. The school will reopen next fall.
Some Southeast Roanoke residents opposed the razing because they said the neighborhood would lose part of its architecture and history.
But architects and school officials said the building could not be renovated to meet the needs of a modern middle school. And they said the renovation would have been so expensive that there would have been little money left for laboratories and educational technology.
Forest Middle School in Bedford County was also a winner in the school architecture competition. The school was designed by Sherertz, Franklin, Crawford, Shaffner of Roanoke.
by CNB