A costly failure for Citizens Telephone
Citizens Telephone Cooperative of Floyd is pulling the plug on a costly failure to become a player in wireless broadband Internet Service. The phone company will shut down its mobile high speed service in Christiansburg, Blacksburg and Radford on April 30 after spending — and losing — a lot of money on the failed project.
"We agonized over making this decision, frankly," Citizens General Manager Greg Sapp, said in making the announcement.
The agonizing decision is the latest setback for Citizens, the cooperative that tried to be many things to many people while — some say — forgetting its roots in Floyd County. Deployment of the wireless service was expensive and the company never came close to meeting its goals for a subscriber base, signing up less than five percent of available customers.
This web site reported in May of last year that Citizens’ wireless broadband deployment in Montgomery County was in trouble. Verizon, the area’s dominant wireless carrier, offers its version of high-speed wireless service for less and even provides the service in Floyd County — which Citizens apparently never had in its plans.
In many ways, Citizens is a shining example of what a small, locally-owned telephone cooperative can — and should — be. It provides good phone service, an excellent level of high-speed wired broadband Internet service and decent wireless phone service that piggybacks on Verizon cell towers.
But the company is also victim to ambitious plans that could not always be fulfilled by reality. A promise to roll out fiber to the home service countywide four years ago is way behind schedule and its television over phone lines (IPTV) service does not deliver high definition broadcast signals and is still not available to many Floyd County residents. Perhaps the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Citizens spent in Montgomery County could have been put to better use in Floyd. Perhaps then the citizens of Floyd County would not pay more for telephone and Internet service than our neighbors in nearby counties.
Or perhaps the employees of Citizens would feel more secure in their jobs. The company currently employs 56 people, has reduced staff through attrition and avoided mandatory cutbacks that were threatened last year but some employees say the threat is still there if conditions do not improve. Also, Citizens has outsourced some services that once were local.
(Updated on March 1, 2009)
Radford? Again?
Floyd County’s state tournament-bound Lady Buffs varsity basketball squad must face a feisty Radford team again in their trip to the finals in Richmond.
Radford upset Floyd County a week ago in the district tournament final in Christiansburg and the Lady Buffs go up against the Lady Bobcats for the regional tourney final in Galax Saturday.
Both teams have qualified for the state tournament and could face each other again.
Floyd County disposed of George Wythe 69-50 in the regional semi-final Thursday night.
It’s going to be an interesting ride.
Split verdict, jail time for Buckey Nester
Former Floyd County Animal Control Officer Garland "Buckey" Nester reports to New River Valley Jail in Dublin Friday to begin serving a 140-day sentence after a jury of eight women and four men convicted him of reckless handling of a firearm but acquitted him of the more serious charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Nester’s conviction stems from a May 29, 2008 incident where he fired four shots at a cow that he could not coax back into his rented pasture. One of the bullets struck and killed 75-year-old Paul Belcher, a Connor Grove Road neighbor who was coming to help Nester with the cow.
My full story about the case appears in Thursday’s Floyd Press. Special prosecutor Clifford Hapgood, the Commonwealth’s Attorney of Franklin County, contended Nester fired in anger and in a reckless manner in trying to put down the cow. Three of the four bullets fired from Nester’s 357 semi-automatic pistol hit the cow, killing the animal, but a fourth struck Belcher in abdomen. He died at the scene.
Hapgood said Nester, who once taught the hunter safety course in Floyd County, should have known better than to shoot the cow in the proximity of occupied houses and a nearby road. Defense Attorney David Damico of Roanoke told the jury that no evidence existed to show Nester lost his temper or acted in a reckless manner.
The two-day trial ended shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday.
A rebound by the Lady Buffaloes
Floyd County High School’s Lady Buffaloes varsity basketball team rebounded from a loss in the Three Rivers District Tournament final last week to decimate the Rebels of Patrick Henry, 80-45.
The Buffs controlled the game from the beginning and Senior star Britney Avancini returned to form after being held to just four points in the tourney loss to Radford. Her 13 points were backed by solid support from Carmen Bolt (12 points), Emily Thompson and Alisha Gray (10 points each). Seven other players scored.
Poisoning the jury pool? Who? Me?
Roanoke attorney David Damico came to Floyd today determined to win a change of venue in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Garland "Buckey" Nester, saying this web site "poisoned" the jury pool because of our "inflammatory" reporting of the charges that grew out of the tragic death of neighbor Paul Belcher when the former county animal control officer shot his 357 semi-automatic pistol at a stubborn cow and one of the bullets went astray.
He didn’t get his change of venue. Circuit Judge Ray W. Grubbs decided to go through the jury selection process before ruling on Damico’s motion. Of the 27 potential jurors interviewed, only two said they ever read Blue Ridge Muse and one of those said she didn’t remember reading anything about the case on our web site. One other potential juror said he knew about Muse but didn’t read us because we’re "just a gossip site." Kinda hard to poison anything when only 3 out of 27 even know we exist. Grubbs denied the motion.
Damico, who filed an earlier motion requesting a change of venue based on print and broadcast coverage of the case, said he only became aware of the coverage on Muse when he did a Google search the weekend before the trial.
His arguments, filled with usual lawyer hyperbole, tried to make us appear reckless but he was reckless in failing to mention that, on Nov. 6, 2008, I cautioned readers to avoid misinformation, saying: "let’s not pass on unfounded rumors and speculation." He also failed to mention that, at a Nester family member’s request, I cut back on the pre-trial coverage and modified some earlier stories.
Our policy is to always correct any errors when we discover them. Testimony today revealed we did make a mistake about the gun used in the shooting. That mistake was based on information passed on by a source we will not trust in the future. It has been corrected and we apologize to Buckey Nester and our readers.
Nester’s jury trial was scheduled to last one day but at 5:10 p.m. today, with Special Prosecutor Cliff Hapgood still presenting his case, Grubbs recessed the court until 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Remember when it really snowed here?
For a few minutes Sunday morning it looked like we might really be in for a snowstorm. But the flurry of flakes lasted only a short time and, by afternoon, the skiff on the ground was gone.
Back in the day, as my granddaddy used to say, it snowed around here. It snowed a lot. We had white stuff on the ground from late October to early March. We had blizzards. We had six inches or more in a "typical" snowfall. We used to put snow tires on our cars for the winter.
No more. Call it global warming or just climate change for some other reason, the winters around here have become non-events. Yes, it gets cold, but even that is not the bone-chilling below zero temperatures that would grip the region for days and sometimes even weeks. The thermometer at Chateau Thompson has not sunk below 2 degrees in three winters now and it doesn’t look like we will have a sub-zero "winter event" before March and the first taste of Spring arrives.
So far this year, Mother Nature has also spared us from the annual ice storm, the branch-breaking, power outage causing, fall and bust your butt coating of frozen water that has replaced snow as the number one winter hazard.
Yes, it’s been colder this winter than in the past couple of years but we’ve also had days where the temperature climbed into the 50s. Yes, the wind howls more than it used to but winter in the mountains sure ain’t what it used to be.
The agony of defeat
The faces tell the story. The Floyd County Lady Buffaloes fell to Radford 58-54 in the Three Rivers District final Friday night at Christiansburg High School. Radford came out swinging, scoring first and taking the lead before the Lady Buffs fought back and lead by 9 points at the half and, at one point in [...]
Irony, Gordon Hannett and the art of the deal
A heavy fog of irony hung over the Floyd County Circuit Courtroom Thursday as former Commonwealth’s Attorney Gordon Hannett entered — as a defendant this time, not a prosecutor.
The hearing on six class one misdemeanor charges of petty larceny and disabling computer software started 35 minutes late, delayed by negotiations on a last minute deal that may let Hannett escape prosecution for the crimes: Another irony since Hannett’s freewheeling style of plea bargains as the county prosecutor became a key issue in his losing 2007 re-election campaign.
Chris Kowalczuk, Hannet’s Roanoke-based attorney, had told a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter earlier that he wasn’t interested in a deal. His client wanted his day in court and chance to "clear his name."
But, in those last frantic moments before the hearing, Kowalczuk and Hannett cut a deal with Special Prosecutor Douglas Vaught, who also serves as Grayson County Commonwealth’s Attorney. If Hannett pays $3,500 in restitution to the county for three missing computer hard drives plus software and performs 100 hours of community service in the next 60 days, the charges will be dropped at a rescheduled hearing on April 16. If he fails to do so, he will be tried on the original charges of stealing the hard drives.
My story on the hearing will appear in next week’s Floyd Press. An abbreviated version was posted on the paper’s web site Thursday afternoon. Roanoke Times reporter Shawna Morrison reports on the story in today’s paper and Richmond Times-Dispatch writer Rex Bowman also covered the hearing.
Hannett sat quietly in the courtroom, looking straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with anyone, especially those he once worked with in the the county’s criminal justice system. When the short hearing ended, he walked out, having used Virginia’s byzantine system of justice to make one last deal.
Lady Buffs go for district title
Floyd County High School’s Lady Buffaloes varsity basketball team goes for the district tournament championship tonight against perennial rival Radford at 8 p.m. at Christiansburg High School.
The Lady Buffs demolished Glenvar 77-50 Thursday night in the district semi-final. The team has already qualified for the regional tournament because they won the district during the regular season. The regionals open Tuesday at Floyd but the team’s opponent won’t be determined until the weekend.
See you at the game tonight.
The economic roller coaster
Talk to business owners in Floyd County and they say pretty much the same: Business is down. It could be better. Then again, it could be worse.
The chatter over coffee at The Blue Ridge Restaurant or Cafe del Sol is more downbeat. Idled workers from Volvo and fixed income retirees facing increased costs for taxes, utilities and other staples share a common worry: Can I make it through these hard times?
That question is being asked more and more around the country. Reports The Associated Press:
As the economy continues to struggle, the public is growing increasingly concerned about losing jobs, not having enough money to pay the bills and seeing their retirement accounts shrink, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll.
Nearly half of those surveyed said they worry about becoming unemployed — almost double the percentage at this time last year.
The poll released Wednesday also found public support dipped slightly in the past month for the $787 billion package of tax cuts and government spending President Barack Obama signed into law this week on the promise that it will save or create 3.5 million jobs and re-ignite the economy.
"I lost a job myself," said Edd Winkler, 40, a married attorney and father of two in Grand Rapids, Mich. "There were just too many attorneys for the amount of work we had coming in to the firm at that time." Winkler has opened his own practice, and says most of his work involves bankruptcies.
"I know a lot of other people who have lost jobs," he added.
You know times are bad when lawyers get laid off.
Appalachian Power does its part with another rate increase that doubles electric bills for some over the past year. Floyd County government is setting the stage for increases in property taxes. Gas prices are sneaking back up. So are food costs. Signs announcing foreclosure auctions now appear along roadways in Floyd County.
Clients who used to pay in 30 days are now take 90 days or longer. A half dozen of our web hosting clients went bust last year and more are on the ropes. More and more local clients want to barter for services. Amy and I now refer to our 401K as our "01K." It’s not a joke.
Many people in Floyd County just scrape by in the best of times. Now they scramble, working three or more parttime jobs to pay the rent and put food on the table. Teachers in our school system worry about job cuts. State budget cuts could also force the Sheriff’s Department to lay off deputies and other county employees could lose their jobs as well.
Floyd Countians have a reputation of standing tough in tough times. We band together to work out a solution.
We’ve weathered hard times before. We can do it again.