The Wythe County agency entrusted with helping others improve their lives is set to get some improvements of its own in the coming months.
County supervisors are seeking proposals from architectural and engineering firms to prepare plans for renovations and additions to the Department of Social Services building located at 275 S. Fourth St.
The proposals are due to the county by 2 p.m. Friday. County Administrator Cellell Dalton said he hopes to have architects working on the project by April with actual construction work beginning in late 2008.

Wythe County stickers for 2008 went on sale last week. They are due by Tuesday, April 15.
For the convenience of county residents, Treasurer Sam Crockett is again going into local communities to sell the stickers. He has done it for several years.
“We get good response from it,” Crockett stated Monday morning. “The office will stay open longer nearer to the deadline, too.”
Crockett’s schedule is as follows:

Rural Retreat Police Chief Bob Lewis has helped solve multiple cases of stabbings and assaults during his nearly 24 years on the job.
He’s also solved the case of too few television channels.

A Wytheville motorist is accused of assaulting a police officer after a short vehicle chase early Monday morning. Robert Wayne Russell, 28, of Wytheville also faces other charges in the incident.
According to Capt. Rick Arnold of the Wytheville Police Department, officers attempted to stop a 2000 Saturn being operated recklessly at the intersection of East Main Street and Marshall Street around 12:39 a.m. They pursued the vehicle onto Meadows Lane at the High Meadows housing complex.

You don’t need the New York Times or “60 Minutes” to dig up dirt on Daniel Kingery.
He’s already shoveled it for you.

A successful garden takes planting, watering, weeding and plenty of nurturing.
But even those with the greenest of thumbs can’t grow a thing without adequate space for plants to flourish.

As a news reporter, Danny B. Gordon covered the meetings of the Joint Industrial Development Authority of Wythe County, Wytheville and Rural Retreat. He later became a member of the authority and recently completed a record 12-year stint.

Bowel troubles played a major role in William Morva’s decision to carry out a jail escape that left two men dead, one of his defense attorneys said yesterday.
During opening statements in Morva’s capital-murder trial, attorney Thomas Blaylock told jurors that, in the coming days they will learn that Morva’s intestinal problems and sinus infections contributed to a sense of frustration and abandonment that prompted him to make his deadly escape.

Six candidates have filed for seats in the upcoming town council elections in Wytheville and Rural Retreat. They include five incumbents and one challenger.

New program aims to reduce SIDS