Local News

INDEPENDENCE — Grayson County is reloading its search for a shooting range location after a previously identified site was deemed to be unsuitable.
County Administrator Jonathan Sweet updated the board of supervisors on the proposed location at the closed Grayson County landfill across Cornerstone Road, during the board’s regular meeting earlier this month.
Sweet also said the county has found additional funding above the $25,000 grant the National Rifle Association has provided the county for building the range.

Gas prices have soared 35 cents in the past 30 days in Virginia.
In fact, prices went up a whopping 11 cents from Friday to Monday, and were at an average $3.61 for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline.
According to the American Automobile Association, the high prices drivers are seeing at the pump are a function of the age-old tension between supply and demand, and strangely enough, both are down.
Crude oil supplies are also down in the wake of OPEC’s decision several months ago to lower production by nearly one million barrels per day.

An August 1940 flood swept in improvements to Chestnut Creek in Galax that continue to keep residential and industrial areas, and even portions of downtown, dry today.
It took until the 1950s for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to “straighten the creek,” but an inspection in 2011 shows that the project still works to minimize flooding in the city.
Engineer Randy Campbell from Huntington, W.Va., in 2011 inspected the project that the corps built to see how it was holding up.

By SHAINA STOCKTON, Staff
To curb the growing problem of deer overpopulation in Galax, city council approved an urban archery program on Feb. 12.
The proposal was brought to council by City Manager Keith Barker. He explained that the program, offered through the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, would allow bow hunting in the city. “This is a practice that has never been allowed in this area before,” he said.