Wednesday, April 11, 2007

‘You Have To Love It

After battling lethal flames, choking smoke and clearing a barrage of training and administrative hurdles for almost 34 years, South Boston Fire Chief William Murray is retiring this summer.
He announced his August retirement during South Boston Council’s Monday night meeting.
“It has been a joy working with the town and the public,” Chief Murray told councilmen.
Town officials described Murray’s legacy as leaving “a fire department in fantastic shape,” one with a youth movement and ably trained men.
Indeed, the fire department has changed dramatically during Murray’s years.
“It was in the mid-80s that we began first responder calls, and that has grown and grown,” said the chief yesterday.
Last year, the department answered a total of 1,651 EMS calls — 1,198 in the town and 453 in the county — and 301 fire calls, according to Murray.
Today it takes 400 hours of training to reach Instructor I status, and the chief said that takes about two years.
But the soul of the department is unchanging.
“You have to love it,” said Murray.
Love of job covers a multitude of tasks at the fire station.
Years and years of training, the uncertainty that accompanies each alarm, the hours spent away from families, and dealing with stress “as calmly as you can.”
For Murray, several fires still linger in his memory.
One Sunday when he was leaving church he heard the alarm.
When he arrived at the scene, he saw three firemen sitting in the yard crying.
“They were crying because upstairs a granddaddy got two grandchildren out on the roof, but one of them went back in.”
Neither the grandfather nor the firemen could get to the child.
“The fire being so hot, they couldn’t get up there, and they knew a child was up there. They had done the best they could but couldn’t get up there ...,” recalled Murray, his voice breaking.
Other memories include a house fire where no one was hurt, but conditions were brutal.
“It was Christmas Eve and the alarm came about 11:30 p.m.,” began the chief. It would be almost 6 a.m. before some of the firemen got relief from the brutal cold.
“It felt like 15 degrees and the wind was blowing. Everything froze,” recalled Murray. “We had to pull people’s gloves back to get firemen loose from lines they were holding.”
Murray was not with the fire department during the tragic Rose’s fire in downtown South Boston, but he was there for the tobacco warehouse fire on Wilborn Avenue.
“Our fear was that it might jump into the Crowell Building and hit the next block,” recalled Murray.
From the beginning, the warehouse fire strategy was to “keep it in these walls if we can.”
Murray credits his fellow firemen with the South Boston Fire Department’s success.
“I have just had some good people all through my years, good to work with, easy to work with,” he said yesterday.
Today, the fire department is a force of 36, has a budget of $557,000 and has six vehicles.
The availability of water, new equipment and training has made all of the difference, according to Murray.
With a smile, Murray recalls the tale of the department’s 1954 Ford fire truck and a kid on a bicycle who passed the fire truck going up the street.
That doesn’t happen today, not with two sleek pumpers, one equipment truck, a brush truck and one EMS vehicle that “runs all the time,” according to Chief Murray. South Boston also houses the county’s ladder truck.

It’s been almost a half century since Murray, a young Harmony lad, was so pleased and proud that he had a pack of beagles to hunt rabbits.
“That was the joy of anybody’s life, your own dogs and a single barrel, 20-gauge Stevens,” he added with a smile.
Later, he would became an avid fisherman and deer hunter, but these days he is a man of the links, a golfer by choice.
Job stability, camaraderie and love of job drew a young William Murray to the fire department.
And it is a job he still recommends.
“When the alarm sounds, firemen are no longer a group. All focus is on getting the job done,” he emphasized.
But he describes his own time at the department as a joy. “And I’ve had some good town managers,” he said.
Current Town Manager Ted Daniel is one who will be sad to see Murray retire.
“I am sad he’s retiring,” Daniel said yesterday. “He’s contributed so much to the community and he’s done so much in putting together a professional fire department and enabling the volunteer fire department to be second to none.
“I’m going to be happy for him as he gets to enjoy his retirement, but I am going to be sad every day I don’t see him at work,” added Daniel. “In the end we just want what’s best for William and his wife Remona. I think a lot of him.”
When he retires, Murray looks forward to golfing and to spending time with his family, which includes his wife, son Willie Robert and daughter Melinda Sue Conner and three grandchildren.

Council Reviews First Budget Draft

Town staff reviewed the highlights of its proposed FY 2007-2008 budget carrying no real estate, personal property or water/sewer rate increases during South Boston Council’s Monday night session.
Although Town Manager Ted Daniel said the town is still getting figures from the state, he described budget projections as “pretty close”.
“We think these revenue projections are conservative,” he added.
Staff’s first draft budget recommendation also carries a 2 percent cost-of-living salary increase for town employees “except for those employees adjusted up to the minimum salary for their pay grade under the Springstead Pay and Classification Study.”
Springstead & Associates recommended a 2.5 percent increase, but Daniel, when questioned by Councilman Ed Owens Monday night, said that when “we ran the 2.5 percent, we couldn’t afford it for salaries.”
The General Fund highlights reviewed by Daniel in the first budget draft hold the real estate tax rate at 19 cents per assessed $100 and the personal property tax rate at $2 per assessed $100.
Daniel also said no other tax rate or fee increases are anticipated.
The proposed $7,353,986 General Fund budget summary reflects a $4,347,661 drop over last year’s $11,701,647 figure, primarily due to $2,857,864 difference in debt service and a $1,340,236 reduction in capital outlays.
The proposed budget also includes South Boston’s landfill closing expenses, budgeted at $1,300,000. That facility is slated to close Dec. 31. Also, the town will end its commercial overhead trash collection Dec. 31.
Other budget
highlights included:
n Water/Sewer Fund — no rate or fees increases proposed. A $1,391,883 drop in total expenditures this year, from $4,498,633 to a proposed $3,106,750 figure for FY 2007-2008. Daniel said staff had budgeted for a full year for water/sewer although the towns of South Boston, Halifax and the county are forging a Public Service Authority which is expected to take over operation of the area’s system in January, 2008.
In other business, councilmen unanimously — with Councilman T.C. Elliott absent - approved a resolution deleting Erosion and Sediment Control from town code. The Soil and Erosion Control program is now being conducted by county inspectors certified by the state.
Council also approved a series of pre-contract activities in anticipation of CDBG funding for the Health Center Project in South Boston.
Community Agencies
The following community agencies are seeking support:
n Museum — $19,099, no increase.
n Library — $75,194, which includes a $5,119 increase request.
n Economic Development -$60,982 total with a $4893 decrease.
n Tourism — $35,000 includes $5,000 increase
n Main Street $45,953 which includes a $125 decrease
n Transfers and Miscellaneous
Halifax Area Rural Transportation (HART) contribution $19,503 which reflects the scheduled $15,233 increase.

CREP Offers Way To Save Farmland, Waterways

For Halifax County landowners interested in preserving their farmland along streams or wetlands for generations to come, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (VDCR) is working with other state organizations to offer CREP.
CREP is the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program which offers rental contracts and permanent easements which protect farmland along streams by limiting what can be done in these areas, according to the VDCR.
Halifax County landowners are leading the way in taking advantage of CREP with 1,937 acres currently enrolled, more than any other county in the state, CREP statistics show.
The majority of the enrolled land in the county is riparian buffers, which serves as a buffer between marginal pasture or agricultural land that will filter out any pollutants that could end up in streams or other waterways, according to program officials.
“We are looking for people to sign up for CREP,” Halifax Farm Services Executive Director Randy Yarbrough said, noting his agency has until the end of the year to enroll more riparian land. “We’re using GIS trying to locate land close to creeks and streams.”
Owners of eligible land will be sent a letter to see if they would be willing to put their land into a 10 or 15 year rental contract, Yarbrough said.
The program offers cost share for environmental upgrades and maintenance, officials said.
A meeting will be held at the Halifax Agricultural Marketing Center on Tuesday, April 24, at 7 p.m. for landowners already participating in the program to update them on changes to the easements, highlighted by the increase from $500 to $1,000 per acre set aside in CREP easements.
Speaking at the event will be CRWP Easement Coordinator Diane D. Dunaway, Raymond Cocke of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Yarbrough, and Bruce Pierce, manager of the Halifax Soil and Water District.
Statistics show why CREP is necessary in Virginia.
During the next 15 years roughly 70 percent of Virginia’s farms and forestland will change hands, according to a study by Virginia Tech.
And between 1992 and 2000 the Commonwealth lost 490,000 acres of forestland, the study found.
To blunt these trends, landowners can enter into an easement with CREP where he agrees to keep the land as a restored riparian buffer or wetland even after the CREP 10-15 year rental contract expires.
The VDCR monitors the property to assure that future landowners honor the terms of the agreement.
Under the easement the property owner still owns the land, but the VDCR holds the easement, which passes to future owners, “so your efforts to protect water quality and wildlife habitat continue even if you don’t control the land,” the VDRC said.
In return for agreeing to the easement the landowner is compensated with $1,000 per acre for all the land protected under the program and the VDCR pays all the costs for surveying, titling and recording the deed, according to program literature.
Once protected the land may not be developed, mined, excavated or used for agriculture, however, it may be sold and partitioned into separate parcels.
Timber may also be harvested from the land under an agreed upon forest stewardship plan, the VDCR said.
There are also potential tax benefits including a federal income tax deduction, state income tax credit, state capital gains exclusion, estate tax reduction and local property tax reduction, program administrators said.

Obituaries

Virgie Edmonds Chaney

Funeral services for Mrs. Virgie Edmonds Chaney will be held Thursday at 3 p.m. at St. Paul C.M.E. Church with the Rev. Billy Cherry officiating.
Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the residence, 1065 Pine Height Trail in Halifax.
Mrs. Chaney, 90, of Rosehill Drive in South Boston, died Sunday, April 8, at Halifax Regional Hospital.
She was born in Halifax County on April 24, 1916, the daughter of the late Daniel Edmonds and Sallie Terry Edmonds and was married to the late Joseph Henry Chaney.
Mrs. Chaney was a member of the St. Paul C.M.E. Church.
She is survived by two daughters, Mable Harris of Albany, N.Y., and Hazel Chandler of Halifax; a son, Joseph Chaney of Selkirk, N.Y., 12 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, a daughter-in-law, two sons-in-law and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.
Mrs. Chaney was preceded in death by three sons, Robert, Lewis and William Chaney.

Frank B. Jones

Frank B. Jones, 68, of Nathalie died April 10, 2007, at Lynchburg General Hospital.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete at press time and will be announced later by Powell Funeral Home.

Baseball Has Been Scooter Dunn’s Life

By Joe Chandler
Sports Editor
From the time that he was a youngster growing up in the Vernon Hill community baseball has been Scooter Dunn’s life.
“This is the only thing I’ve ever known how to do,” said Dunn, one of four individuals to be inducted into the Halifax County-South Boston Sporrts Hall of Fame Saturday night.
Dunn, one of the top players to ever come through the Halifax Dixie Youth Baseball ranks and one of the top players to grace the Halifax County High School baseball diamond, also starred in baseball at Elon College.
Several Major League baseball teams scouted him but injuries kept Dunn from making it to the next level as a player. With playing no longer an option, Dunn turned to coaching and today is noted as one of the top high school baseball coaches in Virginia.
During an 11-year stint as head coach at Halifax County Junior High School, Dunn compiled a record of 142-28 that included nine conference championships and a 59-game winning streak that was featured in a 1983 edition of Sports Illustrated magazine.
Dunn became the head varsity baseball coach at Halifax County High School in 1985 and, the following year, his Comets team won the district and regional championships and advanced to the Group AAA semifinals.
In 1995, Dunn’s Comets team won the district and regional championships and advanced to the Group AAA state championship game where it fell to Green Run High School. During that season, Dunn’s Comets teams beat archrival GW five times, a feat that has not been repeated. For his efforts that season, Dunn was named the Virginia Group AAA Coach of the Year.
When Dunn left Halifax County High School he had compiled a record of 138-57 over a 10-year period.
In 1999, Dunn accepted a teaching position at Danville’s George Washington High School and became the head coach of the school’s varsity baseball team. Entering this season, his eighth season at GW, Dunn had compiled a record of 117-31, had won four Western Valley District championships and has coached two players that were taken directly out of high school in the third and fourth rounds of the Major League Baseball Draft.
While many people know of Dunn’s success as a coach, he was also a successful player.
“A lot of people overshadow my coaching over my playing,” Dunn pointed out.
“ I thought I was a pretty good baseball player.”
That, Dunn was.
Growing up on a farm in Vernon Hill, Dunn described himself as “a self-taught player.”
“I look back at it, growing up on a farm and being self-taught because my dad was wounded in World War II,” Dunn explained.
“He couldn’t throw. My brother was five years older than I was and he didn’t care about baseball.”
With a rubber ball, Dunn learned the basics of the game of baseball.
“I’ll never forget that rubber ball,” remarkd Dunn.
“I remember going to the five-and dime in South Boston when I was four or five-years-old and getting a rubber ball. My mom bought it for me for a nickel. I remember walking around the house and throwing it up in the air and catching it.”
Then came the discovery of the chimney.
“On the back-side of the house was a rock chimney that daddy had plastered and had smoothed and painted,” Dunn noted.
“ I went around there one day and instinctively threw the ball and it hit the chimney and bounced back. I went ‘oh my gosh, I’ve got somebody I can throw to.’ I called it my chimney player. I would throw it up in the top of the chimney and catch it. I would throw it on the ground close to the bottom of the chimney and it would come back as a ground ball. That’s how I learned how to catch.”
Dunn learned hitting with a tobacco stick.
“I started hitting rocks, green apples, bumble bees off a vine at the back of the house, anything I could pick up and hit I hit with a tobacco stick,” he pointed out.
“Once in awhile I would go down to my cousin’s Bedford Clements. He and I grew up together on the farm down at his dad’s when he had tobacco during the summertime. I’d live down there and help pull tobacco. We would throw rocks and apples down at my grandmother’s house and hit them with tobacco sticks.”
Dunn went on to play Dixie Youth Baseball in Halifax. It was as a member of the Halifax all-star team that Dunn’s prowess as a player became known.
“I think what put my name out there was in 1964 in the World Series when we went to Columbus, Miss. and came in second in the World Series,” Dunn explained.
“ In the semifinal game, the team we were playing had beaten us one time before and was undefeated. It was in the bottom of the sixth (inning) with two out and the guy batting in front of me had walked. I hit the second pitch (to me) over the Alabama state flag in dead center field to win the game. That one ball that I hit out put my name back on the map as a ballplayer in the county.”
Dunn made the Halifax County High School varsity baseball team as a ninth-grader because the school did not have a junior varsity team at that time. He played shortstop from 1967-1970 and was awarded the team’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1969.
The Halifax County native was recruited by Florida State but chose to play at Elon College under coach Jerry Drake. He got his chance to play in his sophomore season after another player was injured.
“In the second game of the season, the senior second baseman broke his finger,” Dunn explained.
“Coach Drake moved Jim Morrison, who is now the manager of the Miami Hurricanes, to second base and I played shortstop.”
Dunn went on to have a successful college baseball career and was poised to take a shot at professional baseball. Unfortunately, an ankle injury in the final home game of his senior year at Elon College ended that bid.
“The injury in that last home game before the tournament, I tore the ligaments out of my ankle,” Dunn said.
“The draft was the following week.”
Dunn said he was told he would not be drafted and was advised to go play semi-pro ball during the coming summer and see what happened after that. He did well playing for a semi-pro team in Snow Camp, N.C. but things didn’t pan out for Dunn to go beyond that.
“That (not getting a chance to play Major League Baseball) was my biggest disappointment,” Dunn said.
“ I just wanted to try it, even if it was for a week or a month or a year. It was my dream to do that. I felt like I could do it. It just didn’t work out.”
Dunn pointed out that while he would have liked to have had a shot at playing in the big leagues, he has enjoyed coaching.
I like the coaching part of it,” Dunn said.
“I had great ballplayers to coach too. If I didn’t have the horses to pull the cart, we wouldn’t have been winning. I had great ballplayers at Halifax all of those years. I had players that wanted to play and wanted to learn how to play. I just happened to be fortunate enough to be in that era that it (baseball) just jump started and took off.”
Dunn said being inducted into the Halifax County-South Boston Sports Hall of Fame is a huge honor.
“It was a complete shock to me,” Dunn said of his being informed of his induction into the Hall of Fame.
“This is the biggest honor I’ve ever had in sports. This is something that is very special to me and my family. It’s an honor to be inducted with such a great group of people.
“Mason (Day) and I are very, very close,” Dunn continued.
“It brought a tear to my eye when I found out he and I were going in together. Donald Testerman is also a great one. I don’t know anything about Mr. Balllou except what I read in the newspaper story about him. He seemed to be a fantastic individual as well. I know it is a great, deserving honor for him and his family for him to be inducted.”

Comets Shade Hidden Valley In Tourney Opener

By Joe Chandler
Sports Editor
LYNCHBURG—It took four innings for the Halifax County High School varsity baseball team to get on track in Monday’s opening-round game of the Heritage High School Invitational Baseball Tournament.
Once the Comets got on track, they were too much for the Hidden Valley High School Titans to overcome.
The Comets scored in three of the final four innings to score a come-from-behind 5-2 win over the Titans (3-4) and advance to the winner’s bracket in the three-day tournament.
Halifax County, which improved to 7-2 overall with the win, was set to face Amherst County yesterday at 5 p.m. Amherst County downed Altavista 8-4 in Monday’s tournament opener.
“Heritage High School is putting on a great tournament,” said Comets coach Kelvin Davis.
“There some real quality ballclubs in this tournament. I just hope we can continue to play at the level we should be playing right now. We hope we can continue to be successful and carry it into district play which starts next week.”
The Comets initially had a tough time against Titans hurler Jason Divers but managed to get eight hits in the game with each of the top five batters in the Comets’ lineup getting at least one hit.
Allen Stephens, who bats in the clean-up spot, led the Comets with two hits and two RBIs. Justin Jacobs, who bats fifth in the order, produced a hit, and also had two RBIs in the game.
The top three batters in the lineup,Tony Barbour, Billy Joe Garrett and Justin Bagbey got hits to go along with those from Stephens and Jacobs. Eric Brandon and Joey Rogers chipped in a hit apiece to complete the Comets’ offensive attack.
“Those guys have been doing it for us all year and we hope they will continue to do it,” Davis said of the good hitting from the top half of the lineup.
“When one person is down, another will pick him up. Hitting is all about timing and the guys had to figure him (Divers) out. He was a really good pitcher. He kept us offbalance the first couple of innings. It took us a little time to get to him, but we finally got to him.”
The Comets were slow in getting on track and fell behind 1-0 in the third inning before they could do anything to rough up Titans hurler Jason Divers.
Halifax plated two runs in the top of the fourth inning to take the lead. Barbour opened the inning with a single and Garrett followed with a hit up the middle to put runners on first base and second base. Bagbey hit into a fielder’s choice and was erased at first base but both Barber and Garrett advanced a base to get into scoring position.
Stephens put the Comets on top with a long single that plated both Barbour and Garrett to make it a 2-1 Comets lead. Stephens stole second base and moved to third base when Jacobs grounded out for the second out of the inning. He was left stranded on the sacks when Kaleb Long grounded out to end the inning.
Hidden Valley tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning on a double from Mikey O’Brien, putting the Comets in another tough situation.
The Comets took the lead for the final time in the top of the fifth inning. Brandon kicked off the inning with a single and later advanced to second base. Brandon, toying with Divers, took a large lead off of the bag and got caught in a rundown on a pickoff attempt. An errant throw by the Titans’ catcher that sailed past the bag at second base and into the outfield allowed Brandon to score and put the Comets up 3-2.
Halifax County scored its final two runs in the top of the sixth inning which started with a ground-rule double from Bagbey and a single from Stephens. A two-RBI single from Jacobs put the Comets up by the final 5-2 score.
While the Comets got the job done offensively, Comets starting pitcher Jacob Vest put in another good outing, going five complete innings before coming out of the game and being relieved by Jacobs.
Vest yielded only five hits and two walks and fanned two batters.
“He’s doing a heck of a job for us right now,” Davis said of Vest.
“He wants it so bad. At the start of the season he was a little down on his game and he knew he had to work. He’s worked his butt off to try to get better. That work is starting to shown when he gets out on the mound. He’s throwing everything for strikes now and I’m really tickled about it.”
Jacobs also did a fine job in his two innings of relief, allowing just one hit.
“Justin just wants the ball every time he can get it,” Davis said of Jacobs.
“He’s willing to do anything he can to help the team. He’ll go to the outfield, come to the infield, knock in some runs for us, whatever it takes.”
The bottom line, Davis said, was that the win was a good win over a good team.
“They were a good ballclub,” Davis noted.
“We haven’t faced them before. I hadn’t had an opportunity to get a scouting report on them. When we got here for the game I tried to gather some information on them and the information I got was that this was a pretty good ballclub. We beat a good ballclub up here today.”

Girls Tennis Big In Numbers

By Doug Ford
G-V Staff Writer
The Comets girls tennis team is taking advantage of one of its largest turnouts in several years to field a team with both seasoned veterans and talented newcomers.
That is the assessment of third-year coach Greg Donner, who lost only one player, Colleen Barnes, to graduation from last season.
“There was much optimism that this would be one of the strongest teams in many years. But, due to forces beyond our control, the Comets started the year with only five players who had seen any real action in the past,” said Donner.
Those five mainstays include Shanna Luck, Teylor Edmonds, Sarah Bradford McCollum, Seanna Bradley and Kandance Irby, who have filled the top five singles seeds for Halifax at one point this season.
Newcomers to the lineup include Dana Acree, Morgan Farley, Fallon Farmer, Takeyah Givens, Tiffany Green, Kathryn McDaniel, Courtney McDowell and Melanie Pool.
Donner said that the core members of the team have showed steady improvement since last year, including number one singles seed Shanna Luck.
”The best news both for the team and me as a coach is the return of Shanna Luck,” noted Donner.
“Last year at number one singles she managed to defeat every number one opponent in region play as well as emerge as one of the top seeds for the district tournament.
“Shanna also anchors the number one doubles team, and she is definitely one of the top players in the district.
“A year of practice and maturity have her playing stronger and smarter than last year.”
Third-year player Teylor Edmonds has moved from the number four singles slot to number two this year, a big jump, noted Donner.
“This means more difficult matches against the top area players. So far, her play has been steady and she’s shown improvement in all the matches.”
McCollum has seen time at the number three and four singles positions and teams with Luck at number one doubles.
“She’s shown improvement in her singles matches and is a great partner for Luck at number one doubles,” said Donner.
“I believe there’re no limitations on how far they can go if they continue to improve,” the coach continued, adding that Luck and McCollum have already won over talented doubles tandems from Martinsville and Prince Edward.
Bradley has also seen time at both numbers three and four singles thus far, and has been one of the mainstays in the Comets lineup, said Donner.
“She’s one of our most experienced players. Seanna has seen some time at doubles this year and may be a regular at number three doubles if a good match emerges from the new players on the team.”
Irby is another third-year player who has shown improvement, having seen time at both singles and doubles this season after playing doubles last year, according to Donner, who has a number of new players to develop this season.
Six players from this group, which includes Acre, Farley, Farmer, Givens, Green, McDaniel, McDowell and Pool, have seen match time in the first two contests, according to Donner.
All eight first-year players are so closely matched in their skill levels that it may take more time for a regular lineup to develop, he noted.
“This can be a blessing for the coach who is pleased to have so many players to choose from and bodes well for the future of the program,” said Donner.
“A final bright spot is the presence of one of last year’s best doubles players, Lauren Tetterton,” he continued.
“She was injured in an automobile accident last year and is working out with the team in hopes of returning before the year is out.
“Lauren has shown much improvement in the past few weeks and is working to be able to play in matches. I hope she will be ready to play at least doubles before the end of the season.”
Overall, the Comets are deep in numbers, and it will probably take a little time for the newcomers and veterans to work together for a winning combination, said Donner.
“The season is young and so is our team, and I hope that by the end of the season, we can be competitive with anyone in the district,” said Donner.
“If there is strength in numbers, we should be as strong as we have been in several years, but only time will tell how much progress we make.”