The Roanoke Weekly

Your week in the Star City, in about ten minutes. Every Monday, we cover the biggest local news and run down the best events happening around the Roanoke Valley. Locally curated, AI-narrated. We pull from great local sources like the Roanoke Times, WDBJ, WSLS, and Cardinal News — and we encourage you to support them.

The Roanoke Weekly is a news podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 20 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts The Roanoke Weekly, a news show with 20 episodes published.

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  The Roanoke Weekly

  Carvins Cove Hits a 2002 Low, Hotel Roanoke's Conference Center Sells, and Peepers Goes Home | The Roanoke Weekly

  Oct 5, 202611 min

  The drought went regional this week. Carvins Cove, which supplies much of the Roanoke Valley, dropped to nearly 21 feet below full, its lowest level since December 2002. Bedford Water expanded its conservation request to the whole county, Rocky Mount asked residents to cut back after the Blackwater River tripped its drought plan, and Amherst moved into emergency provisions. Mayor Joe Cobb explained why he's backing the proposed Wood Haven data center, which would draw from Spring Hollow Reservoir. And the hopeful note: in 2002, a strong El Niño erased the drought within three months, and this year's El Niño is stronger by some measures. In the Rundown: the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center sold to the Virginia Tech Foundation for $14 million, all of it going to the city, clearing the way for the Foundation to sell the whole hotel. A new, resident-driven plan is underway for Evans Spring in Northwest Roanoke while The Conservation Fund negotiates to buy the land. Parkway Brewing opened downtown, and Vinton is taking proposals to redevelop the East Lee Avenue corner lost to a 2022 fire. HCA plans a new LewisGale emergency room in Hollins. And Virginia Tech lost to Pitt 35-33 on an unreviewable missed field goal. The Week Ahead: Weird Al at the Salem Civic Center, David Arquette's Behind the Scream at the Berglund Center, Maggie Rose at The Exchange Music Hall, and a Latin dance party at the Jefferson Center. Saturday brings the Salem Half Marathon, the Vinton Fall Festival, the Egyptian Food Festival, the Taubman's American Made opening party, and Michael Franti at Smith Mountain Lake. Sunday, the Crystal Spring Block Party and John Pizzarelli and Catherine Russell at the Jefferson Center. Closing the show: WSLS's Clear the Shelters campaign found homes for 956 animals, including a cat named Peepers who waited 316 days. Locally curated, AI-narrated. We pull from the Roanoke Times, Cardinal News, WDBJ7, and WSLS, and we encourage you to support them.

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  Wood Haven Confirmed, RMA Moves Into Black Dog, and a Choir on Stage With Foreigner | The Roanoke Weekly

  Sep 28, 202611 min

  The regional authority that voted behind closed doors to sell land at the Wood Haven Technology Park confirmed this week that the buyer, Clearview Dynamics, intends to build a data center. The Roanoke Times obtained the purchase agreement through a records request and found nearly every dollar figure redacted except a $500,000 deposit. The buyer has until as late as next March to study the site, the sale isn't expected to close until October 2027, and no end user has been named. WDBJ reported the two sides signed a nondisclosure agreement in March 2024, nearly two years before Clearview Dynamics was formed; the authority says that agreement was with an unnamed affiliated company. The site would draw water from Spring Hollow Reservoir, which is running about 26 feet below full during a drought. And Mayor Joe Cobb accused two council colleagues of violating council's ethics code with their public statements against the deal. In the Rundown: a new statewide study found Southwest Virginia has the highest rate of food insecurity in Virginia, 55% of households and 70% of families with children. Roanoke Mountain Adventures moved from Wasena into Black Dog Salvage, with customers riding about a hundred bikes to the new store. Academy Sports + Outdoors opens on Towne Square Boulevard Friday with at least 60 jobs. Virginia Western inaugurated Laura Treanor as its fifth president and first woman in the role, and Roanoke College is ending its required May Term. And Patrick Henry lost its final appeal and moves up to Class 6 in 2027. The Week Ahead: Nosferatu with a live score at the Grandin, the Salem Museum's 28th Ghost Walk, a sold-out Friday night game as Virginia Tech hosts Pitt, First Fridays downtown, and the Craftsmen's Fall Classic at the Berglund Center, free with a food donation to Feeding Southwest Virginia. Saturday brings Old Southwest Porchfest, the Local Colors Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration, Fall Fest in Elmwood Park, Skydog closing the season at the Dog Bowl, and UVa at Florida State. Sunday, Music on the Mountain and Margo Price at the Harvester. Closing the show: the William Byrd High School choir won a spot on stage with Foreigner at the Salem Civic Center. Locally curated, AI-narrated. We pull from the Roanoke Times, Cardinal News, WDBJ7, and WSLS, and we encourage you to support them.

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  The Roanoke Weekly

  The Wood Haven NDA, a Record Tourism Year, and Annie Dillard | The Roanoke Weekly

  Sep 21, 202612 min

  A week after the Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority voted behind closed doors to sell the Wood Haven Technology Park, we have a buyer's name and almost nothing else. WDBJ reported the purchaser is Clearview Dynamics, a limited liability company formed in January, and the Roanoke Times noted its registered agent has been linked to other data center projects. A Roanoke County spokesperson confirmed the county has signed a non-disclosure agreement that legally bars officials from saying what's planned for the site, saying only that it supports the proposed project as an appropriate use of the park. Neighbors across the road learned about the sale from group chats after the vote had already happened. When Vice Mayor Terry McGuire asked the authority's lawyer for the purchase agreement, he was told he could file a Freedom of Information Act request. By Thursday, both of Virginia's U.S. senators had called for an end to NDAs in economic development deals, and on Friday the governor signed an executive order on data center accountability. As Cardinal News reported, the order's ban on nondisclosure agreements covers state agencies and state employees, not local officials. At the Western Virginia Water Authority, director Michael McEvoy said Google has told the authority two million gallons a day will cover its Botetourt campus, and that nobody from the Wood Haven buyer has contacted them at all. In the Rundown: visitors spent $972.5 million in the Roanoke region last year, a third straight record and a faster rate of growth than Virginia overall, with July's USA Cycling mountain bike national championship alone worth $3.3 million. I-81 now runs three lanes each way for six miles between Wildwood Road and Electric Road, and VDOT plans to switch on a new light and realigned off-ramp at Peters Creek Road overnight Thursday. Early voting opened Friday, with seven candidates running for three Roanoke City Council seats and three constitutional amendments on the ballot. The 1959 Colony House Motor Lodge on Franklin Road, a Googie-style survivor restored and reopened last year, was inducted into Historic Hotels of America. And Carilion's Taubman Cancer Center topped out on Riverside Drive. The Week Ahead: the Violent Femmes play Elmwood Park in what looks like a thunderstorm, Foreigner brings its fiftieth anniversary tour to the Salem Civic Center, Bearly Dead plays 5 Points Music Sanctuary, and Friday clears up for 311 at Elmwood, Priscilla Block at Dr Pepper Park, and Grandin Chillage. Saturday brings UCI cyclocross racing to Fallon Park for Go Cross, Big Something to the Dog Bowl at Black Dog Salvage, free fall festivals in Buchanan and Fincastle, Virginia Tech at Boston College and UVa hosting Delaware, and the Big Fat Greek Drive-Thru. Closing the show: Annie Dillard, who came to Hollins College in Roanoke County, spent a year looking closely at a creek there, and won a Pulitzer Prize for it, died this week at 81. Locally curated, AI-narrated. We pull from the Roanoke Times, Cardinal News, and WDBJ7 — and we encourage you to support them.

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  The Roanoke Weekly

  Wood Haven Sells Behind Closed Doors, Roanoke Buys Ole Monterey, and Fall Arrives | The Roanoke Weekly

  Sep 14, 202613 min

  Two big pieces of Roanoke land changed hands this week, one in the open and one behind a closed door. Friday evening the Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority came out of closed session and authorized the sale of land at Wood Haven Technology Park, then released nothing else — no buyer, no price, no stated use. The Roanoke Times ran it as a "secretive land sale" and reported the 111-acre site at the Interstate 81 and 581 interchange is widely expected to become a data center. Ten citizens filled the entire thirty-minute public comment period in opposition, with the crowd spilling out of the boardroom. Afterward Vice Mayor Terry McGuire and Councilman Phazhon Nash issued a joint statement saying a majority of council had given the city manager consensus to proceed, and that they are opposed — citing a Washington Post–Schar School poll showing 35 percent of Virginia voters are comfortable with new data centers in their community, down from 69 percent in 2023. The same statement promised to fight any data center at Ole Monterey, the 236-acre former golf course in northeast Roanoke that council voted Tuesday to buy for $8 million. The city lists a possible school campus, housing, parks and recreation, and industrial development among its options. The Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation has the property on its endangered sites list: it's the second-oldest course in the valley, on land once owned by Colonel William Fleming, who is buried there. In the Rundown: an outside study found Roanoke's planning department hobbled by a prolonged leadership void, a vacancy rate that hit 36 percent, and what developers called a "culture of no," though the city says its permit backlog is already dropping. Preston Park Elementary opened in northeast Roanoke, replacing a 1952 building so crowded that teachers were holding class in hallways. Around the region, Franklin County's supervisor fight ended with Mike Meredith dropping his claim and Bonnie Law appointed to the Boone District seat, Bedford County's school board weighed four options that all involve closing a second elementary school, and Christiansburg tightened its rules on any future data center. A farm in northwest Roanoke is opening a neighborhood grocery store, in a city where most national chains sit on the edges or outside the line entirely. And a new report says the region needs about 9,000 more health care workers, more than 3,000 of them registered nurses. The Week Ahead: Mill Mountain Theatre opens "Oklahoma!," Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood play the Harvester, Radford's Tartan 5K runs the greenway at twilight and Salem screens "How to Train Your Dragon" in Kiwanis Park, early in-person voting opens Friday, the Henry Street Heritage Festival returns to Elmwood Park for its 35th year, more than twenty high school bands compete at Salem Football Stadium, Mill Mountain Zoo marks International Red Panda Day, Opera Roanoke opens its 51st season with "La Traviata," and fall festival season starts at three farms at once. Closing the show: two brothers direct the marching bands at Northside and Hidden Valley, and once a year both bands call the same game the Galyen Bowl. Locally curated, AI-narrated. We pull from the Roanoke Times, WSLS 10, Cardinal News, and WDBJ7 — and we encourage you to support them.

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  The Roanoke Weekly

  Flock Falls Across the Region, Wawa Lands in Salem, and Roanoke Builds a Wave | The Roanoke Weekly

  Sep 7, 202613 min

  The Flock story stopped being a string of separate local votes this week and turned into something closer to a regional decision. Lynchburg's city council voted in a special meeting to begin ending the city's contract and take down fifteen license plate readers. The sheriff's offices in Amherst and Bedford counties stopped using their cameras immediately, citing discrepancies they want to review with the company, and Montgomery County's sheriff paused use and is forming a review committee. Cardinal News counts at least twenty Virginia localities that have stepped back from Flock since July, twelve of them inside three weeks. It's also become something candidates run on: in the Montgomery County sheriff's race, Democrat Tim Brown reversed his earlier position and now says he'd take the office's four cameras down. In Roanoke, the gunshot detectors are gone but twenty-four license plate readers are still running. In the Rundown: Roanoke City Public Schools eliminated 148 jobs before the school year began, 64 of them teachers across all 24 city schools, closing a $14 million budget gap — the deepest cuts since the 2008 recession. Wawa opened its first Roanoke Valley store in Salem, with Daleville and Lynchburg coming by year's end and 60 stores planned along Interstate 81. Roanoke's in-river park is on schedule to finish this year and will be the first of its kind in Virginia. A Franklin County supervisor resigned, then wrote the board two weeks later to say he never actually did. Congressman Ben Cline and Democratic challenger Beth Macy can't agree on how to debate in the sixth district. And a new UVa forecast projects Virginia loses about 18,000 jobs this year. The Week Ahead: the 25th anniversary of September 11th brings commemorations across the region, UVa hosts Norfolk State Friday night and Virginia Tech hosts Old Dominion Saturday, Roanoke College plays at Salem Stadium, Olde Salem Days fills Main Street with more than 300 vendors, the Roanoke Symphony opens its season outdoors with Symphony Under the Stars, and the Beaver Dam Farm Sunflower Festival runs Friday through Sunday with a Field of Heroes tribute. Closing the show: J.J. Redick, the Cave Spring product now coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, came back to the Roanoke Valley for the first time in thirteen years and spoke to more than five hundred Roanoke County students. Locally curated, AI-narrated. We pull from the Roanoke Times, WSLS 10, Cardinal News, and WDBJ7 — and we encourage you to support them.

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