The cadaverous stink of rotting grain no longer haunts Donna Smoot and her neighbors at Cypress Court, a small cluster of patio homes in the Hollins area of Botetourt County.

A month ago, the rancid odor kept residents of Cypress Court cooped up in their air-conditioned houses. Its source was traced ultimately to fill material hauled from abandoned grain silos and other flour mill structures being demolished near the corner of South Jefferson Street and Reserve Avenue in Roanoke.

Smoot said Tuesday that the odor dissipated gradually until disappearing completely about three weeks into September.

"I can go out on my patio now," she said.

This summer, concrete, block and brick from the former Mennel Milling site were hauled by S.B. Cox Demolition Contractors to the nearby Lee Highway headquarters of Lawrence Transportation Systems.

Lawrence was using the debris as fill for a new, roughly 2-acre parking lot.

It turned out that some amount of old grain was mixed in with the fill material and there was also a theory that the odor of grain clung to concrete from the silos and grain elevators.

The smell became especially noticeable in July during rot-inducing cycles of rain and heat. Smoot, who is retired, became an activist of sorts, calling local and state officials looking for answers. Frustrated in August by lackluster responses, she contacted The Roanoke Times and other local media.

In late August, Chip Lawrence, chairman of Lawrence Transportation, emphasized that he never would have guessed the fill material would end up throwing off such a stench.

On Tuesday, Lawrence said the gravel parking lot is finished, the fill material is "all covered and encapsulated in red clay" and the site is "completely dressed up, seeded and strawed."

Similarly, Jimmy Dalton, a project manager for S.B. Cox, said his company's demolition and grading of the old Mennel Milling site are complete.

"We finished up about two weeks ago, and we are just watching the grass grow," Dalton said.

Mennel Milling has occupied a new home in Roanoke County since 2007.

The old flour mill's demolition came in relation to ongoing redevelopment in the vicinity of South Jefferson Street and Reserve Avenue. Carilion Clinic owns the mill property, having purchased it last year from the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

In August, Glen Rippke, an agricultural specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University, said the odor should lessen over time as the grain rotted away and the fill material was covered. He was right.

Smoot said many of her neighbors have thanked her for bringing attention to the neighborhood's plight.

But she said one neighbor chided her, saying related media attention would make it harder for people to sell their homes in Cypress Court.

Lawrence said publicity stirred a visit to the parking lot site by engineers from the state who required the company to install a system to handle storm water.

He said related expenses halted Lawrence Transportation's plans to contribute a third soccer field to the community.

Otherwise, he said, "It all worked out OK."