Residents in Halifax County can get a six-month subscription to The Gazette-Virginian for only $10.
Orlan Sawey, minister for the South Boston Church of Christ, plays a little of the folk music that he grew up with. Sawey, in addition to singing and accompanying himself on the guitar and harmonic, also has a large collection of the old folk or Hillbilly tunes.
It wasn’t so much about wants but needs when South Boston Town Council’s Finance Committee met in council chambers to receive budget requests from a number of department heads. South Boston Fire Chief Steve Phillips told committee members his department is in dire need of a new pumper truck, “not anything fancy,” he said, but one that would cost approximately $420,000. That is more than half of the $702,382 for the fire department in South Boston’s proposed 2014-15 budget. The department’s current pumper is almost 20-years-old, and a typical truck lasts about that long, Phillips said.
Growth of tourism in Halifax County was recognized over the weekend when the Department of Tourism received two awards, Visitor Center of the Year and Heritage Tourism for the Heritage and Antique Machinery Festival, both presented by the Virginia Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (VACVB). “To be awarded two awards speaks volumes of what’s taking place in South Boston, Halifax County,” said Halifax County Tourism Director Linda Shepperd.
Woody Clay and John Howerton could only cast a wary eye behind them in Sunday’s closing round of the Halifax Country Club Two-Man Tournament. A five-stroke lead the pair had built Saturday was slowly crumbling under the weight of a charge by Jimmy Clay and James Lewis. Woody Clay and Howerton held on, however, and they topped a competitive field with their second win in the annual tournament, played this year in honor of club member and former South Boston City Manager Aubrey Houghton. The winners fired a two-day total of 62-68-130, one stroke ahead of Clay and Lewis, with high school golf standouts Joey Gasperini and Peter Gasperini finishing third and Jay Burnett and David Meeks rounding out the top-four finishers in the First Flight.
20 YEARS AGO | 2004
The late Woody K. Bane, who served the town of Halifax as chief of police and town manager for decades, was honored by town residents. A new public plaza was named for Bane. The plaza, to be constructed during the town’s revitalization, will be located adjacent to the Halifax Town Hall.
With $14.9 million in funding from the Virginia Tobacco Commission since 2000, low taxes, the forethought to turn “trash into cash,” and a composite index that means an extra $4 million a year in state revenue for schools, Halifax County is poised to invest in the future. No other Virginia county has the blessings to have extremely low property tax rates, combined with the windfall of extra state school funding, a major proportion of tobacco money, and a low-cost landfill.
A drive down memory lane at South Boston Speedway ended in victory lane for Mardy Lindley as he took home a win in the Hooters Pro Cup Series Lucas Oil 250 presented by Virginia Is For Lovers. Driving the familiar No. 16 made famous here by his father, Butch, Lindley led the race-high 221 laps to fend off challenges.
40 YEARS AGO | 1984
Construction could begin soon on a new Riverdale shopping center that will include a large grocery, variety and drug stores and a number of smaller stores and shops. Mike Day, who with his father, Mason C. Day Sr., owns the tract of land at the southeast corner of U.S. 50 and 501, said a contract has been signed with the John W. Daniel company of Danville to develop the property. Daniel will be responsible for the total package, including lining up the tenants, Day said.
Curits Mayes, postmaster at the Mullins, West Virginia, and a 16-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service, has been named postmaster in South Boston. Mayes succeeds Tom Watlington, who retired Jan. 1. In the interim Mary Ingram, an employee of the Danville post office, has served as officer-in-charge.