Local News

Virginia’s budget crunch could again mean no funding for a long-completed but still unopened prison in Grayson County, acknowledges the facility’s main proponent in the state Senate.
Sen. Bill Carrico (R-Fries) has been lobbying for prison funding to be included in Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposed budget, and the senator feels certain that the governor is sympathetic to the idea.

After a few densely populated localities turned the whole state blue in the 2012 presidential election, a state senator has submitted a proposal to the General Assembly to revamp the way Virginia’s electoral college votes are awarded.
Many of the rural areas of the state turned red as most voters there, including those in Southwest Virginia and the Twin County area, supported Republican Mitt Romney in his bid to become the next president of the United States.

HILLSVILLE — Carroll’s Industrial Development Authority approved a motion to buy two former Kentucky Derby Hosiery buildings at its Monday meeting.
International textile company Gildan, after buying Kentucky Derby Hosiery’s assets, closed many of its American plants, including those in Hillsville, by 2008.
The last offer made by the Carroll IDA on the KDH buildings was $1.6 million, but the authority approved a purchase price of $1.2 million at Monday’s meeting.

Much of Galax City Council’s Nov. 26 meeting was spent examining ways Galax has improved economically and in tourism over the last several years. Tourism Director Ray Kohl reported that the city has been awarded two plaques at recent conferences and that more tourism opportunities in Galax are on the horizon.