ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512150027
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
READERS, CAST YOUR VOTES
For the top stories of the year in Western Virginia
These are your times. Which means it's your news - and your third annual chance to decide which were the top news stories of the year in Western Virginia. They don't have to be the ones that got the biggest headlines. Maybe they were simply the ones you were the most fascinated by or the ones you followed most closely. Or maybe they were the ones that had the biggest impact on your life or your community. Or maybe just the ones you think you'll remember most clearly about 1995 a decade from now.
However you judge the top stories, take a few minutes to call InfoLine to cast your vote.
We'll publish the results on Dec. 31, then kick off a whole new year of news.
HERE'S HOW TO VOTE (in three easy steps)|
1. MAKE YOUR LIST AND CHECK IT TWICE. Use this calendar of the year's top stories - 95 in '95 - as your ballot. Make a list of what you think were the top five stories of the year, in order of importance. After each story, there's a number. That's the code number you'll need to vote for that story.
2. CALL INFOLINE. In the Roanoke Valley, 981-0100. In the New River Valley, 382-0200. Then press 1995. (Note: This only works on touch-tone phones.)
3. CAST YOUR VOTE. You'll be given a chance to vote for five stories, in order of importance, starting with the most important. Follow the directions and punch in the code numbers that go with your top five stories. That's it. But hurry: Voting ends at midnight Tuesday.
JANUARY
1: Five people killed at a New Year's Eve party in Roanoke. Robert May later pleads guilty and is sentenced to five life terms.
MURDER, 01.
2: Roanoke fire injures 22 and destroys 12 apartments. Dramatic rescues at Valley View Village Apartments.
FIRE, 02.
4: Radford University Board of Visitors kills the proposed New College of Global Studies, under pressure from the Allen administration, which wasn't going to fund it.
GLOBAL, 03.
4: Cabell Brand, who founded TAP 30 years ago, announces he's retiring as the agency's chairman at the end of September.
TAP, 04.
10: Roanoke County Board of Supervisors sparks minor controversy when it refuses to allow heat to be turned on to Frances Lamb's trailer, saying she set it up in violation of county ordinances.
TRAILER, 05.
11: On General Assembly's opening day, Fincastle state Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo opposes a proposed rules change. His opposition sets in motion partisan bickering that prevents the governor from addressing the assembly, and sets tone for a rancorous session.
ASSEMBLY, 06.
14: Virginia Tech learns that its basketball conference, the Metro Conference, wants to boot it out so the league can invite other members; Tech later joins the Atlantic 10.
METRO CONFERENCE, 07.
18: Roanoke gets a semipro soccer team, the Riverdawgs.
RIVERDAWGS, 08.
19: Corrections Corp. of America announces it plans to build state's first private prison in Wythe County, setting off long controversy that ends only when another company with another site wins the contract.
PRIVATE PRISON, 09.
20: State Health Department announces outbreak of deadly flesh-eating bacteria in the Shenandoah Valley.
FLESH-EATING, 10.
29: Radford University names Douglas Covington as its new president. COVINGTON, 11.
28-30: What's forecast as a minor snowfall winds up dumping 8 inches of snow on Roanoke.
BIG SNOW, 12.
FEBRUARY
16: Patricia Holdaway becomes the first parent in Roanoke to be charged with allowing her child to break curfew; case later dropped after a judge rules portions of the law are "unconstitutional."
CURFEW, 13.
17: The Salem Rescue Squad endures the investigation and conviction of two of its members for embezzlement. Former rescue squad chief Ray Houff, indicted this date, pleads no contest. Later, Salem City Councilman Garry Lautenschlager is found guilty for embezzling more than $20,000 and resigns his council seat.
SALEM SQUAD, 14.
20: Fleetwood Homes announces it will expand in Rocky Mount, adding about 200 to 250 new jobs.
FLEETWOOD, 15.
22: City tells Spanky Macher the Big Boy statue atop his Star City Diner must come down, sparking public outcry. City, under pressure, finally caves in and Big Boy stays put.
BIG BOY, 16.
25: General Assembly names Lawrence Koontz of Salem to the state Supreme Court.
KOONTZ, 17.
27: Sinkhole forms on Interstate 81 near Salem; interstate closed or partially closed for four days, disrupting traffic.
SINKHOLE, 18.
MARCH
1: Asparagus farmer Walter Beck indicted for painting a bad word about his neighbor on his Floyd county roof.
ROOF, 19.
7: Roanoke toddler is burned with scalding water and a hot hair dryer; Tonya Basham later convicted of child neglect and malicious wounding. TODDLER, 20.
8: Judge George Harris throws out DUI case, saying state's administrative revocation law constitutes double jeopardy. A higher judge later overrules him.
DUI, 21.
10: Old papers found in Botetourt County Courthouse, bearing signatures of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry.
OLD PAPERS, 22.
13: Roanoke City Council rejects referendum on setting up a ward system.
WARDS, 23.
15: Vinton parents meet with police to discuss their concerns about drug use at "raves," the first time the all-night dance parties attract official attention in Western Virginia.
RAVES, 24.
18: The last opening day of trout season, as Virginia changes its rules to allow year-round fishing.
TROUT, 25.
27: Five-year-old kindergartner killed by school bus in Vinton.
BUS ACCIDENT, 26.
29: Virginia Tech's basketball team wins National Invitational Tournament title in overtime.
NIT, 27.
APRIL
3: Hotel Roanoke re-opens.
HOTEL, 28.
8-11: Forest fires rage in Craig County; out-of-state firefighters called in.
FOREST FIRES, 29.
22: The old First Baptist Church in Roanoke burns; juvenile arsonists blamed. It's the most spectacular in a series of fires that plague the city during the spring, as the city fears a "fire bug."
FIRE SPREE, 30.
22: Botetourt County deputies shoot, kill man who attacked them with an ax.
AX, 31.
25: Victoria Bond makes final appearance as Roanoke Symphony conductor.
BOND, 32.
MAY
1: Tour DuPont rolls through Western Virginia. Thousands cheer on the cyclists.
TOUR DUPONT, 33.
3: U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., cuts deal with North Carolina Sen. Lauch Faircloth on Interstate 73, which effectively guarantees the proposed road will pass by Blacksburg, Roanoke and Martinsville. By year's end, the bill authorizing the road is signed into law.
I-73, 34.
12: City ends flap over taxing Festival in the Park vendors the same way it ended the Big Boy controversy; it gives in.
VENDOR TAX, 35.
15: Valley Bank opens, billing itself as the valley's "community" bank in the wake of Dominion's takeover by First Union.
VALLEY BANK, 36.
19: Carilion Health System, the Roanoke Valley's biggest employer, announces plans to cut expenses by 9 percent, kicking off its "re-design" that shuffles some management positions and eliminates others.
CARILION, 37.
29: Proposed D-Day memorial in Bedford unveiled.
D-DAY, 38.
JUNE
1: Montgomery County school bus driver charged with DUI.
DUI, 39.
20: Botetourt County announces plans to create an 875-acre business park between Daleville and Fincastle. The proposed Greenfield development stirs controversy from those who fear Botetourt is becoming too developed.
GREENFIELD, 40.
22-28: Floods inundate Western Virginia. Two die when Timberlake Dam near Lynchburg breaks; three die in Franklin County when they drive into a big hole in the road.
FLOODS, 41.
26: Gov. George Allen fires a controversial board member of the Roanoke Valley-based Virginia Veterans Care Center.
VET BOARD, 42.
27: Apco announces major reorganization.
APCO, 43.
JULY
1: The Roanoke Times & World-News becomes simply The Roanoke Times.
NEWSPAPER, 44.
1: Starting today, 15-year-olds can get a learner's permit.
LEARNER'S PERMIT, 45.
5: Courthouses are jammed on the first day of Virginia's more lenient concealed weapons law.
CONCEALED WEAPONS, 46.
5: Jim Updike, who achieved fame as the flamboyant commonwealth's attorney for Bedford County, moves to the bench and becomes a General District Court judge.
UPDIKE, 47.
10: The New Century Council begins releasing its long-range "vision" for Western Virginia.
NEW CENTURY, 48.
12: A.O. Smith, Inc., an automotive goods manufacturer, announces plans to build a new plant in Botetourt County, more evidence that the valley's industrial base is pushing into neighboring localities.
AO SMITH, 49.
13: The rescue squad museum announces plans to move from Center in the Square to Tanglewood Mall.
RESCUE MUSEUM, 50.
15: Goodbye 703, hello 540. Western Virginia gets a new area code.
AREA CODE, 51.
17: Emma Saunders goes before Vinton Town Council to protest its ban on Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs. Council is unsympathetic, and the great Vinton pig protest begins.
PIGS, 52.
20: Miss Virginia, Andrea Ballengee, is stripped of her crown after its discovered her resume is inaccurate. She's replaced by Amber Medlin. |MISS VIRGINIA, 53.
26: Virginia Rubber Recyclying in Rocky Mount burns.
RUBBER, 54.
AUGUST
1: Virginia Military Institute picks Josiah Bunting as its new president.
BUNTING, 55.
7: A Botetourt County man hangs himself in the back of a Roanoke police wagon.
HANGING, 56.
7: Salem's new baseball stadium finally opens, to rave reviews.
STADIUM, 57.
9: Blacksburg police, attempting to arrest a man on parole violations inside a drug store, shoot and kill him when he brandishes a pellet gun at them. The shooting touches off a community outcry.
REVCO SHOOTING, 58.
12: A Montgomery County woman is beaten to death and mutilated at an Alleghany Springs trailer park; her estranged husband is later charged with capital murder.
SLAYING, 59.
12: Roanoke's new minor-league football team, The Roanoke Rush, plays its first game.
RUSH, 60.
22: The Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership, designed to give women a military-like education without making Virginia Military Institute co-ed, opens its first-year program at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton. That doesn't stop the court case against VMI, though: The Supreme Court later agrees to hear arguments in the Justice Department's lawsuit to end VMI's all-male admissions policy.
VMI and VWIL, 61.
24: The national debt clock in downtown Roanoke goes dark.
DEBT CLOCK, 62.
31: Roanoke's pedestrian bridge linking the Hotel Roanoke with the City Market opens.
PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE, 63.
SEPTEMBER
6: Virginia's Explore Park gets a $1 million donation, announces plans to move the Brugh Tavern from Botetourt County to the park.
EXPLORE, 64.
7: Salem Police Chief Harry Haskins announces his retirement.
HASKINS, 65. 7: Lamar advertising rejects a gay message on its billboard.
GAY AD, 66.
15: Roanoke County parents challenge the state's new parental contract in court.
PARENTAL CONTRACT, 67.
15: Jefferson National Forest says it's delaying, once more, its environmental impact report on Apco's proposed power line.
POWER LINE, 68.
22: Roanoke jury finds militia man Bill Stump of Dublin guilty of possessing illegal silencers, but clears him of more serious conspiracy charges. Federal authorities had claimed the Blue Ridge Hunt Club made plans to carry out guerrilla warfare as part of right-wing uprising against the federal government, a charge that drew attention in the wake of suspect militia ties to the Oklahoma City bombing.
HUNT CLUB, 69.
26: Roanoke County Board of Supervisors votes to keep U.S. 221 where it is, and improve the existing roadbed rather than build a new road.
221, 70.
OCTOBER
4: Carilion Health System is granted preliminary approval to build a new hospital to replace the existing Radford Community Hospital, beating out the rival Columbia/HCA Healthcare.
RADFORD HOSPITAL, 71.
6: Spectacular tanker crash in Franklin County closes U.S. 220.
TANKER, 72.
31: Justice House is padlocked and condemned, after founder David Hayden gives up the shelter and a dispute arises as to who is responsible.
JUSTICE HOUSE, 73.
NOVEMBER
3: The Volvo GM Heavy Truck plant in Dublin announces it will lay off 100 to 150 workers in January. Later, it ups the number to about 250.
VOLVO, 74.
7: Election Day brings an end to the most expensive and most partisan General Assembly races in Virginia history. In Western Virginia, which saw more contested races than usual, only one incumbent loses: Democrat John Edwards ousts Republican Brandon Bell from the Roanoke Valley's state Senate seat. The Via brothers, who together contributed more than $210,000 to Republican causes, saw their favorite candidates lose. House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell retains his title, and consolidates his power as the state's top Democrat.
LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS, 75.
7: In Botetourt County, voters throw out the commonwealth's attorney and commissioner of revenue, installing Republicans Joel Branscom and Jay Etzler in their place.
BOTETOURT, 76.
7: Montgomery County voters elect a new sheriff: Doug Marrs, who succeeds the retiring Ken Phipps.
MONTGOMERY, 77.
7: Bedford County voters reject consolidation and elect a new sheriff, Mike Brown, who succeeds the retiring Carl Wells, who had been one of the region's most prominent lawmen.
BEDFORD, 78.
8: Virginia Tech President Paul Torgersen announces the College of Education will be merged with another, sparking a faculty protest.
TECH COLLEGE, 79.
16: The Roanoke County School Board approves building a new Cave Spring High School.
CAVE SPRING, 80.
20: Montgomery County's Board of Supervisors refuses to condemn land for the "smart road," temporarily blocking the proposed high-tech highway. Later, they back off, sort of, but the road's future remains in doubt.
SMART ROAD, 81.
28: Jens Soering, convicted of killing his girlfriend's parents in Bedford County in a celebrated case in 1990, announces that he's written a book explaining why he didn't do it and posted the document on the Internet.
SOERING, 82.
29: A Roanoke jury awards an 84-year-old woman $135,000; she'd claimed emotional distress when apartment complex workers stomped on the baby birds nesting in her window.
BIRDS, 83.
30: Tai Collins, the former Roanoke beauty queen of Charles Robb sex scandal fame, is in town to celebrate the airing of one of her TV scripts on "Baywatch."
COLLINS, 84.
DECEMBER
1: The defendants in the Phototron pot case begin pleading guilty. They were charged with being party of the largest indoor-marijuana growing ring ever busted in the Roanoke Valley.
PHOTOTRON, 85.
5: Hollins College President Jane Margaret "Maggie" O'Brien announces she's leaving for another college presidency in Maryland.
O'BRIEN, 86.
5: Controversy over Virginia Tech's in-house judicial system brews, after woman goes public to charge the system went easy on a football player. Provost holds campus meeting to air views.
TECH SYSTEM, 87.
5: A Virginia Tech student is abducted and killed; three Giles County men are charged, one of them with capital murder.
TECH STUDENT, 88.
7: A predicted one-inch dusting turns into 10 inches of snow in the Roanoke Valley.
SNOWSTORM, 89.
7: The Roanoke Valley's unemployment rate hits 3.5 percent, the lowest its been in October since 1974.
UNEMPLOYMENT, 90.
9: For the third year in a row, Salem is the site of the Division III college football championship, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
STAGG BOWL, 91.
11: Paul Thompson pleads guilty to capital murder in the death of Virgie Green in Roanoke as part of an agreement that sentences him to life in prison without parole, thus avoiding a capital murder trial and the chance of being sentenced to death.
MURDER PLEA, 92.
22: The Jefferson Club closes. The private dining club in downtown Roanoke, where the valley's business leaders often mingled, suffered declining membership following the departure of major corporations and a change in federal tax laws.
JEFFERSON CLUB, 93.
30: The University of Virginia's football team plays in the Peach Bowl.
PEACH BOWL, 94.
31: Virginia Tech's football team caps a 9-2 year in which it won the Big East championship by playing in the Sugar Bowl, the biggest post-season bowl the Hokies have ever been invited to.
SUGAR BOWL, 95.
LENGTH: Long : 371 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: KEYWORDS: INFOLINE YEAR 1995by CNB