The Roanoke Times: Local news

Slate Hill owner awaits county's aid - roanoke.com

Jim Smith wants a development authority to finance a parking garage and water service at the site.

The owner of Slate Hill is re-branding the controversial development and said he's ready to start building, if he can get some assistance from Roanoke County.

Jim Smith has chosen "South Peak" as the new name for his project on the prominent knob at the intersection of Virginia 419 and U.S. 220 -- and he said a parking garage is essential to the development.

Short Hills tall issue - roanoke.com

The state is proposing to pay $6 million for a Rockbridge County wildlife and hunting area, but some say the price and problems outweigh the benefits.

RAPPS MILL -- Short Hills, a 10-mile stretch of steep, boulder-capped mountain in Rockbridge County where bears roam, is as inaccessible to most Virginians as any snowy Tibetan peak. But a plan now in the works would put the mountaintop into state hands, giving the public -- and hunters -- sudden access to thousands of rugged acres.

Region's leaders want to increase recycling - roanoke.com

2008's recycling rates ranged from 48 percent in Salem to 13 percent for Botetourt County.

For every six-pack of beer or soda downed in the Roanoke region, two of the empty aluminum cans get tossed in a recycling bin and the other four wind up in the trash.

That's a simplistic way of looking at the area's recycling rate, which last year was 33.3 percent.

Adoption ceremony makes it official - roanoke.com

The National Adoption Day event in Roanoke County marked several new beginnings.

Robin Allen and the two young boys she and her husband fostered had been to court many times before.

The boys' birth mother had fought to keep them, and every time there was a court hearing, Allen feared the babies would be taken from her.

Kaine requests federal aid to assist victims of nor'easter - roanoke.com

NORFOLK -- Gov. Tim Kaine has requested money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and low-interest loans from the government to help people who were victims of last week's nor'easter.

Kaine asked for FEMA assistance to cover costs of damage to public infrastructure and debris removal in Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and the counties of Halifax, Isle of Wight, King and Queen, Northampton and Surry, a governor's office statement said.

Roanoke fire was deliberate - roanoke.com

A Roanoke house fire that sent one person to the hospital Saturday was "intentionally set," an official said.

Crews were called to a house in the 1100 block of 12th Street Southeast about 8:30 a.m., spokeswoman Tiffany Bradbury said.