The Department of Defense announced in a press release Monday that 35-year-old Staff Sgt. Chad A. Barrett of Saltville died Feb. 2 in Mosul, Iraq, as a result of a non-combat related incident. He was based out of Fort Carson, Colo., with the 64th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. According to the Defense Department, the incident is under investigation.

With snow and rain falling across the region this winter, a generally damp feeling to the ground, streams running higher then they have in months, and weather reports tracking a small precipitation deficit since only Jan. 1, it might seem the drought of 2007 is over.

At several points last year the 1908 Smyth County school building on Marion’s Strother Street seemed fated for demolition to make room for courthouse parking mandated by the Virginia Supreme Court. A parking deck agreed to in principle by Smyth County and the Town of Marion late last year spared the old building, and now the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development has awarded the town and county a planning grant to use in studying the building’s future.

When the proposed new Smyth County Community Hospital opens in early 2012, if the project proceeds as planned, the old hospital will either have an appropriate use or swiftly face demolition, a SCCH official said Tuesday.

In hopes of building on the success of last year’s Memorial Day observance, Marion Mayor David Helms is again organizing a display of flags recalling veterans’ service, part of the Francis Marion VFW Post-sponsored event heading into its second year.

They comfortably acknowledged that some of them have their own style, and that some of them have body piercings. But the group of early twenty-somethings also talked Thursday about 501(C)3 non-profit status, quality of life for youth, economic development, and faith in God that their plan involving all of these will come to fruition.

There’s a bit of paperwork remaining but the Virginia Tobacco Commission has apparently awarded a $45,000 grant for Marion’s proposed farmer’s market.

Marion Senior High School won bronze in U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools 2008 based on assessments from 18,790 schools across the United States.

The service of a Marion police officer who apparently took his own life Saturday will be remembered at funeral ceremonies Wednesday.

Women of Southwest Virginia: On Friday night, the laundry can wait. There’s no need to consider cleaning out closets. Put on pajamas and plan on an evening of food, talk, pampering and no stress.
That’s the message radio personality Sheri Lynch wants to get out about WZVA-Z103.5’s girls’-night-out event set for this Friday in Marion.