The following felony indictments issued Dec. 11 by the grand jury were on file at the Smyth County Courthouse Thursday. Each defendant’s name is followed by the approximate offense date and the charge. Indictments do not mean the accused is guilty, but only that a grand jury finds there is sufficient reason to send the case to court.

Blue Ridge Job Corps Center Director Gary Tickles had a vision, and a gymnasium full of people saw it come to pass Wednesday.
Tickles wanted the center to offer curricula in practical nursing leading to the Practical Nurse diploma. About a year and a half ago, the program started with 15 students.

By WAYNE QUESENBERRY/Staff

Unique Boutique is appropriately named. The new Rural Retreat shop features everything from white chocolate spoons to handmade designer purses.
All the merchandise has local connections. Most of the items are the work of 11 area crafters.
“I saw a need for a unique store,” noted owner/operator Sandy Leonard, a Rural Retreat resident. “I wanted a place where people could buy quality gifts at affordable prices.”
That place turned out to be inside El Ranchero, the Mexican restaurant at the Rural Retreat crossroads on West Lee Highway. Restaurant manager Linda Dillon is a friend of Leonard’s and offered to lease a front section of the building to her.
“It’s worked out well,” stated Leonard, who is a former finance manager and floral designer. “Many of the restaurant customers stop in and I have a lot of local customers. Someone was in the other day and wanted gifts to take with him to France. He was looking for things that weren’t made in China.”
Unique Boutique has plenty of items not produced in foreign lands. There are bath and beauty products made by Dana Suthers of Crockett. The designer handbags are by Chris and Tracy Robinson of Rural Retreat, who also sell their wares in trendy shops in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., area.
“The purses are selling really well,” Leonard commented, “and the country crafts are doing well, too.”
One section features hand-painted mailboxes and plaques from a Smyth County artist. Another table holds a variety of crocheted and knitted items by a Rural Retreat crafter.
There are canned cakes, jars of apples for frying, cookbooks from Blue Springs United Methodist Church and cat-shaped jewelry holders.
“I have 11 different crafters that rent booth spaces,” Leonard said. “They’re all people I know. I didn’t want a bunch of flea market stuff.”
Various vinyl life-like baby dolls from Duckhorn Heirloom Dolls are part of Leonard’s own stock. An independent Avon representative, Leonard has various jewelry sets for sale and takes sales orders.
Concerning the dolls, she stated, “I was going on a mission trip with my church to Honduras last year. I wanted to take a doll as a gift but I couldn’t find one that looked real or was pretty. I used to make dolls.”
Leonard is an active member of Grace Baptist Church in Atkins. She is taking another mission trip in March through the Good Samaritan Missions Board.
Her husband, Greg Leonard, is trade account manager for GIV in Bastian. She has two daughters, Mia Umberger and Brianna Umberger; and two stepsons, Jason Leonard and Thomas Leonard.
Leonard is the only Unique Boutique employee for now. She may add a person as the business grows.
Unique Boutique is open from noon until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It is closed Sundays.
“I gear the hours toward the restaurant,” Leonard pointed out. “After people eat, most of them stop in here.”
Wayne Quesenberry can be reached at 228-6611 or .   

Troy Leon Goad, who hid in the southern Smyth County mountains for months last year eluding law enforcement officers hunting him in connection with a string of burglaries in three counties, will spend 18 years and five months in jail.
Judge Isaac St. C. Freeman sentenced Goad, now 23, in Smyth County Circuit Court Friday. Commonwealth’s Attorney Roy Evans said Monday that Freeman sentenced Goad to five years in the penitentiary on each of 15 burglary charges, one year on each of eight grand larceny charges and five years on the charge of felon in possession of a firearm.  He was also sentenced to serve 12 months in jail on each of 11 destruction of property charges and on five petit larceny charges. 

If history is any indication, many will have trouble finding the perfect gift for hard-to-buy-for people on their Christmas lists. Debbie J. Williams and Kimberly Barr Byrd hope history will also provide a solution to that problem.
The two Smyth Countians, themselves authors of two of the photo-rich compilations in Arcadia Publishing’s series Images of America, have organized a joint appearance with Joe Tennis, Ron Harrington and Jeff Weaver. Tennis has written two historical books and has an Arcadia title in the works. Harrington has published a book on historic buildings in Marion, and Weaver has written for years about the Civil War.

If history is any indication, many will have trouble finding the perfect gift for hard-to-buy-for people on their Christmas lists. Debbie J. Williams and Kimberly Barr Byrd hope history will also provide a solution to that problem.
The two Smyth Countians, themselves authors of two of the photo-rich compilations in Arcadia Publishing’s series Images of America, have organized a joint appearance with Joe Tennis, Ron Harrington and Jeff Weaver. Tennis has written two historical books and has an Arcadia title in the works. Harrington has published a book on historic buildings in Marion, and Weaver has written for years about the Civil War.

Smyth County Sheriff David Bradley has observed a disturbing occurrence on Marion Streets lately and wants drivers to remember the rules of the road around school buses.
Bradley said drivers may assume they don’t have to heed buses’ flashing lights, signaling loading or unloading children, on the wider four- and five-lane streets like North Main and Commerce streets.
“If it’s not a divided highway, they have to stop,” Bradley said, for a stopped bus with its load/unload warning lights flashing. “It’s especially dangerous with the little kids. You don’t know which way they might dart out.”

There’s something you can give his holiday season that will be found on few gift lists. And according to one official, this season is when that gift will be most needed.
That gift is a blood donation.

At about the mid-point of the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Drive, the kettles should be about half full. Actually, they’re emptied regularly and the money deposited in the bank, but instead of nearing the 50 percent mark, the campaign has received a third of the money it hopes to raise.

There something ironic, surreal even, about sitting in a room with a fire flickering in the hearth, a Christmas tree glowing with lights, and snow falling gently just beyond the windows – to watch videos of explosions and talking about how to deal with people who want kill Americans.