A popular series of free Thursday night concerts for residents of and visitors to Floyd appears in jeopardy this year.

The series, sponsored by Hotel Floyd, is not scheduled for the Floyd Country Store, which hosted the events last year during construction of an addition to the hotel.

Construction continues this year and is not slated for completion until next year and the hotel has not announced any plans for a 2013 season.

Last year, the season began in early May and ran through October.  This year, the Hotel Floyd web site does not list any information about a 2013 season.  We will check on this and report back.

The video above is a short collection of some of the acts from last year, including Apple Jack, The Grace Sisters, Scott Perry and his students, Windfall and Abe Goorskey and Scott Patrick.  The photo below is from a previous year when the concerts were held in the pavilion on the hotel grounds.

It would be a shame to see this series fall by the wayside.

Then it was twice a month on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.

Now it’s every Tuesday and — more than often — other days of the week as well.

A sentenced scheduled Monday was pulled at the last minute but Tuesday’s docket is full.

With crime on the rise in Floyd County, court is something we see more and more often.  As the newspaper reporter assigned to cover the courts it means a lot of time on a hard court bench documenting the doings and misdoings of a populace gone astray.

So much crime, so little time.

Floyd County Supervisors Lauren Yoder, Joe Turman and Case Clinger.

As my story in today’s Floyd Press reports, the county will hold the line on real estate and personal property taxes this year after the Board of Supervisors crafted together a budget that gives government departments some — but but not all — of what they wanted for the next fiscal year.

The board decided Tuesday night to not go for a tax increase this year and they will approve final budget figures and schedule a public hearing on that budget when they meet the second Tuesday in May.

The new budget gives a three percent raise to county employees and a two percent raise to teacher along with some help on their retirement benefits.

The relief to some taxpayers may be short-lived.  Next year will bring reassessments on real estate and an almost-certain tax increase.

Stay tuned.

“Zero TV” is the category for homes that don’t have cable or satellite TV and avoid traditional television in favor of watching movies on DVD, Blu-Ray or even videotape.  Some get programming over their computer or even smartphones and they pick the shows they want to watch, when they want to watch them, and without shelling out more than a hundred bucks a month for a service.

An Associated Press story on growth of “Zero TV” in the nation found Jeremy Carsen Young, a Roanoke graphics designer who says he is done with regular TV and he now has an unplugged antenna on his back porch.

“I don’t thing we’d use it enough to justify having a big eyesore on the house,” he told AP.

Here in Floyd County, we know a number of people who avoid “traditional TV,” including blogger Fred First and county supervisors Case Clinger and Lauren Yoder.  First watches movies on DVD and Clinger says uses Netflix to get his films via computer.

Netflix and Amazon offer online video subscriptions for about $15 a month (for both) and offer not only movies but also episodes of television series as well as documentaries not always available on normal channels.

Neilsen says the number of people signing up for “traditonal” TV services has “slowed to a standstill.”  While households in the United States grew by 974,000 last year, only 46,000 subscribed to cable, satellite or telecom video services  — about five percent.

Related articles

• ‘Zero TV’ homes grow to the dismay of broadcasters

Virginia Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli

Virginia’s homophobic attorney general is fighting a recent U.S. Appeals Court decision to strike down the Old Dominion‘s anti-gay law that declares sodomy illegal.

Ken Cuccinelli, of course, is claiming his move to ask the court to reconsider its decision that Virginia’s anti-sodomy statute is illegal based on a case involving a sexual predator but the attorney general’s past anti-gay actions are sell documented and his claim is dubious at best.

Virignia’s long-standing anti-sodomy statute has little to do with attitudes towards oral sex or other carnal practices between consenting, heterosexual adults.  It was aimed from the beginning at finding a way to harass homosexuals and it has been used most of the time for that purpose.

Federal law now declares anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional but Virginia has kept the archaic legislation on the books and it was used in a case where a 47-year-old man — a combat veteran with post traumatic stress syndrome — asked a 17-year-old girl for oral sex

The U.S. Appeals court struck down the conviction in March, noting that Virginia’s use of the anti-sodomy law violated a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that declared the law anti-gay and unconstitutional.  Virginia is one of 18 states that still has the law on its books and still uses it — as in this case — in violation of federal law.

In one of his arguments, Cuccinelli called oral sex “unnatural” and “against the laws of nature.”  While that is an argument of morality, not law, it is also subject to debate by consenting adult couples who may or may not practice the act as part of normal sexual relations.  Virginia calls its anti-sodomy law the “Crimes Against Nature” act.

Public opinion polls show Virginians split over the issue of gay rights but surveys on sexual attitudes in the Old Dominion show a strong preference for oral sex among consenting adults.  A poll in 2001 by Rasmussen Research found 81.7 percent of Virginians though oral sex should be legal for married couples and 65.2 percent favored repealing the Crimes Against Nature Act.

So Cuccinelli’s actions raise a legitimate question:  Is the attorney general representing the Commonwealth with his overzealous crusade or he is simply substituting his personal prejudices for law?

In the past, the Crimes Against Nature Act was used, with other now long-abandoned bigoted statutes, to try and outlaw a mixed-race marriage in the Old Dominion’s racist crusade against Richard Loving, a white Virginian who married a black woman. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled that Virginia’s actions against the Lovings were unconstitutional and violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

At the very least, Cuccinelli’s actions are unconstitutional and at odds with his ultra-conservative supporters who spout Constitutional mantra as holy writ.

In the end, Cuccinelli’s record exposes him as a homophobe and raises a more serious question:  Is the kind of bigot Virginians want as their next governor?

The establishment’s ABC license expired with the tragic and untimely death of Tom Ryan in January and the popular establishment on Locust Street has remained closed since.  A collective of family and friends of Tom had hoped to have the shop reopened on the April 5 date but too many details will need to be worked out to meet that date.

But the store’s new owners are certain they will be worked out and the store will reopen soon even if they have to do so before a new ABC license is in place.

The return of the store is welcome.  We all feel Tom’s absence and miss him.

The Republic of Floyd shop on Locust Street in downtown Floyd.

Republic of Floyd, the eclectic beer, wine, cheese and nick-knack shop started by the late Tom Ryan, is scheduled to reopen on Friday, April 5 under new ownership.

Floyd mayor Will Griffen said Sunday the store, which closed after Ryan’s sudden and unexpected death in January, is scheduled to reopen under new owners but said he could not disclose their names at this time.

“The plan is for the store to reopen on April 5,” he said.  The new owners are working with the state Alcohol Beverage and Control (ABC) board to resolve issues on the beer and wine that remained in stock after Ryan’s death.

Ryan, a local entrepreneur, was a fixture in the community and has been missed by many.  A reopening of the store will be viewed by many as an honor to his memory.

Overflow crowds and thousands of dollars raised Sunday for the Empty Bowls project event at Floyd County High School. Entertainment by dancers and the musical duo of Bernie Coveney and Andrea Marshall added to the annual event that has become a staple in the county.

The event raised a record $8,960.

Welch, West Virginia: A coal truck drives out of a town in a county that is considered to be dying.
(AP Photo/Jon C. Hancock)

According to new census estimates, a third of the counties are dying — both in population and economically.

As the base population ages and local economies weaken, many younger residents move to other areas to find work and start families.

In nearby West Virginia, deaths exceed births and the population decreases at an alarming rate.  Maine recently joined West Virginia as a place where more people die than enter life.

In Floyd County, the population has increased but the growth has slowed dramatically in recent years and more and more growth in the county comes from immigrants — some who have entered the U.S. illegally — and sought home in the area.

Nationwide, population growth has also slowed, growing by use three-fourths of one percent last year, the lowest levels since the post-depression years in the 1930s.

Kenneth Johnson, a “demographer” and sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire, says many smaller, rural counties should worry.

“These counties are in a pretty steep downward spiral,” Johnson told The Associated Press. “The young people leave and the older adults stay in place and age.  Unless something dramatic changes — for instance, new development such as a meatpacking plant to attract young Hispanics — these areas are likely to have more and more natural decrease.  I expect natural decrease to remain high in the future.”

One who does not is Sheriff Shannon Zeman, who is actually asking for less funds.

Zeaman says he can make do with less because he pretty much got what he asked for last year and because he was able to use drug seizure funds to buy an additional squad car.

While Zeaman can make do with what he has, other departments say they need more and County Supervisors are wondering what the final cost will be when the biggest part of the budget — the school system’s request — comes in at the end of the month.

With federal and state aid dwindling and costs going up, the schools are hurting.  Class sizes are increasing and teacher salaries continue to linger at the bottom of the scale when compared to other areas of Virginia.  A long line of speakers at a recent public hearing told the Board of Supervisors they want to see increases in teacher salaries and decreases in class sizes at the county’s one high school and four elementary units.

In other departments, Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Murray Shortt wants funds for an full-time assistant prosecutor, the Electoral Board needs money for new computerized voting machines, the library wants to increase salaries and pay for repairs and the sanitation needs cash to pay to protect workers from toxic fumes.

The supervisors will have to consider a tax increase at a time when most Floyd County families are barely able to make ends meet now.