Q&A
With Abingdon Senior Center Director Dexter Peltzer

Damascus Town Council decided Monday that $15,000 was too much to help the fire department fill in a parking lot behind the bingo hall.

The panel had agreed last meeting to begin the process of handing over the land to the department. Wade Farmer said the proposed agreement would split the cost of making the parking lot and allow the town to use the lot during Trail Days. The three acres the town agreed to donate appraised at $300,000. A public hearing on that transfer is set for next month’s regular meeting.

A dozen bird species found at least part of the year in Southwest Virginia are among the 178 birds species two conservation groups called the “most imperiled” on the North American continent.
In a joint teleconference Wednesday, officials with the National Audubon Society and the American Bird Conservancy released their cooperatively compiled WatchList 2007 that includes birds in most immediate need of conservation efforts to slow and halt their flight into extinction.

Bill Dennison uses two sentences to sum up the duties of a job that makes him the second-highest-paid public employee in Bristol, Va.

Tamara Neo will earn $109,385 per year and become Buchanan County’s highest-paid public employee when she takes over as commonwealth’s attorney Jan. 2.

At first glance, the position of Circuit Court clerk in Virginia seems a cushy job for veteran politicians as well as newcomers.

Phil Lineberry decided on a teaching career because a former teacher inspired him and served as a role model. 

Gathering local government salaries from across Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee was not only an arduous exercise of fiscal oversight for this newspaper, but also showed that localities routinely fail to follow open records laws.

Glade Spring’s top cop manages raise, but still earns less than peers in region

The Washington County Service Authority moved Monday night toward more water conservation.
In agreeing to ask customers to voluntarily conserve water, the board joined Gov. Tim Kaine and other service authorities in the region in addressing what could become a mandatory situation.