|

 

Top 10 Stories of 2008

 

1. Barack Obama visits Lynchburg

When Barack Obama put Lynchburg on his itinerary for a campaign stop Aug. 20, the race for president reached a crescendo unheard in Central Virginia since Ronald Reagan visited the city in 1980.

Within minutes of a cell phone alert from the Obama campaign of his visit, supporters had started to line up outside campaign headquarters in downtown Lynchburg for free tickets to the event.

A noisy crowd of 2,000 filled the E.C. Glass High School gymnasium for the Democratic candidate, and some of the supporters joined his get-out-the-vote effort locally.

Obama’s visit was followed by a series of appearances in Lynchburg by surrogate candidates, including S.C. Rep. James Clyburn, for Obama.

Joe McCain, brother of Republican candidate John McCain, spoke at Liberty University in October. Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, spoke at Thomas Road Baptist Church on McCain’s behalf on Nov. 2.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also made an appearance for McCain.

While Obama ultimately carried Virginia with 52 percent of the vote, McCain took the majority vote in Lynchburg, helped by a Liberty University voter registration drive that sent more than 3,000 students to the polls.

2. Ruptured pipeline ignites explosion in Appomattox

The rupture of a natural gas pipeline shattered a quiet Sunday morning in Appomattox in September.

Nearby residents fled as gas spewed into the air and then ignited into a huge fireball just north of town that leveled two homes, injured five people and damaged property within a one-mile radius.

An emergency shelter opened at the high school as town and county residents worked together to help those in need. Rescue workers later said it was a miracle that injuries were not more extensive.

The pipeline is one of three that run side by side through the county, delivering natural gas to New York from the Gulf of Mexico. In the days and weeks that followed the Sept. 14 incident, the company that operates the more than 50-year-old line determined that it had been corroding from the outside.

All of the lines have been inspected for damage by federal and company officials. One now is operating at full pressure again. The line that ruptured and the other line are operating at reduced pressure until government officials can verify their safety.

3. City native heads to heavens

Lynchburg’s first astronaut soared into space this year — even if it wasn’t exactly on schedule.

Heritage High School graduate Leland Melvin and the Space Shuttle Atlantis were supposed to blast off in November 2007, but technical difficulties pushed the launch date to February.

During the 13-day mission, Melvin operated a 58-foot robotic arm to install the Columbus laboratory onto the International Space Station. He even celebrated his birthday, Feb. 15, in space, with his family — parents Grace and Deems Melvin and sister Cathy Melvin Clarke — looking on from the NASA Langley Research Center. Melvin’s family also watched Atlantis take off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.

“It was simply beautiful. It was perfect,” Grace Deems said at the time. “It was just exciting to see it get off the ground, and it went through the sky and disappeared.”

4. Area shaken by seven homicides

The year began with a homicide and by the time it rang to a close, there had been seven in Central Virginia.

Arrests have been made in all the cases, with the exception of the death of 8-month-old Marissa Burnette, of Bedford. A medical examiner’s report said this month that she died from blunt-force trauma to the head in September.

Perhaps the most notable homicide of the year was the May 3 slaying of 19-year-old Justin Baumgardner in Amherst County. A jury in October convicted Timothy Wright Jr. of first-degree murder; he will serve 63 years in prison. Justin Michael Davis, the son of an Amherst County deputy at the time, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 15-year sentence.

Among the other homicides:

- The July stabbing death in Lynchburg of Christopher Flood left a husband charged with murder and his wife charged as an accessory. The charge against Rachelle Scott-Hayward was dropped in December after a judge said prosecutors did not prove the allegation that she held bystanders off with a baseball bat. Her husband, William Hayward, still faces a murder charge.

- The May slaying of an elderly Lynch Station man shocked the rural Campbell County community. Wilbur West was found shot in the head after he did not show up for church. Alphonso Lamont Destin, 21, and Renauldo Sinclair Oliver, 23, each were indicted on a capital murder charge and could face the death penalty if convicted.

5. Terrorism hits home for Nelson County spiritual community

A November trip to India was a spiritual pilgrimage for a group from the Synchronicity Foundation community.

For a father and daughter among them, it literally became, in the words of a loved one at their memorial, the trip of their lifetime.

Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, died in the Nov. 26 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. Their fates stood out amid international outrage and reached back to Nelson County.

The tragedy brought unprecedented national attention on Synchronicity’s pastoral retreat, and way of life, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. The father and daughter lived with wife and mother Kia Scherr on the foundation’s 400-plus acres, where an eternal flame now burns in their memory.

6. Region battles economic woes

If the nation’s economic woes were a flash flood, then Lynchburg could only stay above the flow for so long.

Early in 2008, the area hardly seemed affected by a weakening economy. Taxable sales were up, job growth outpaced the state, and home prices rose slightly.

Trouble in national industries began to hit home in the summer.

As large financial firms suffered, Genworth Financial lost millions on investments in troubled firms. Local car dealerships struggled to close sales because of tight credit markets. On the other end of the industry, at least two local companies that make parts for automobiles had layoffs.

Two furniture manufacturers in the region — Frank Chervan Inc. in Bedford and Thomasville Furniture in Appomattox — announced layoffs in December.

7. Toddler struck by car dies

From start to finish, the handling of the January death of Madison Heights toddler Omarion Rose by the legal system drew public outcry.

Two-year-old Omarion was found Jan. 14 on the side of Seminole Drive by passing motorists; he had been struck by a car. Nearly two months later, 19-year-old Kaylie Silby was charged with reckless driving.

At her trial in July, Silby was found guilty of improper driving, a less-serious misdemeanor, and fined $500.

Silby testified she was driving down Seminole Drive that morning when her cell phone rang. As she looked down, she said, she hit what she thought was a pothole and didn’t stop.

“It came down to driver inattention,” Amherst County Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Maddox said. “The judge equated that with reaching for a cup of coffee, and reaching for a cell phone is not illegal.”

Rose’s family filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Silby in September.

8. Newcomer Perriello wins tight race

Although many pundits began to believe Democratic challenger Tom Perriello had become a contender in late October against Rep. Virgil Goode, no one was saying he could overcome all of the 34-point advantage Goode enjoyed in a Rasmussen poll in August.

It took three days of canvassing the votes in each county of the 5th District before Perriello could claim victory, and six more weeks until a recount confirmed on Dec. 16 that Goode, a Republican, had been voted out after a dozen years in D.C.

The final margin of victory for Perriello? A mere 727 votes out of more than 300,000 cast.

9. Maier painting sets record price

One of the paintings that had been at the center of a controversy locally was recognized internationally in May when it auctioned for a record-breaking $7.2 million.

Rufino Tamayo’s “Trovador,” one of four paintings that Randolph College decided to sell from its Maier Museum of Art, was estimated to bring in $2 million to $3 million before it broke the world auction record for Latin American Art.

The selling of the paintings had been a divisive topic since October 2007, when the college announced its plans to sell the art and put the proceeds into its $153 million endowment.

The other three pieces — George Bellows’ “Men of the Docks,” one of Edward Hicks’ “Peaceable Kingdom” paintings and Ernest Hennings’ “Through the Arroyo” — remain in fine arts storage, maintained by Christie’s auction house.

10. City opens up dialogue on race

Lynchburg’s Community Dialogue on Race and Racism drew close to 1,100 participants before its early phases concluded in April.

The city-organized event was created in part to address the racial tensions sparked by the 2006 death of Clarence Beard, a black man who died in the custody of two white police officers. The dialogue sought to create an open discourse about race and prejudice. Participants also were asked to explore ways of improving conditions locally.

The end result was the creation of a roster of “action ideas” that touched on areas ranging from law enforcement to schools and churches. Volunteers are now in the early stages of implementing those goals. Organizers have emphasized this will be a long-term project requiring significant leadership from the community.