What stared out as a fundraiser for local Boy Scouts quickly became the means for the nation to whip up a taste of Southwest Virginia.
         Created to benefit the scouts' national summer trip, held every three years, the Discovery Tour 2006 Cookbook has become quite a local favorite. Recently, the Breaks District Boy Scouts were surprised to find that it will be featured in a national publication.
          The idea came when Cub Scout Leader Wanda Clevinger attempted to earn the Wood Badge, which requires applicants write ten things he or she will accomplish in 18 months.
         "She called me and asked what she could put down as the last thing that would help me out," says Curtis Mullins, Scout Master of Troop 740 in Grundy. "I said, 'Put down fundraising.'"
          Clevinger laughs that she didn't know what she was getting into when her son Travis, 15, joined the scouts in the first grade. Today, she is still an active parent, dedicating her time to the cub scouts she led almost nine years ago.
          When the time came to raise funding for the scouts' Discovery Tour 2006, a trip around the U.S. the scouts take every three years, Mullins says he decided a cookbook would be the perfect project for all of the troops.
           "The book was created by our boy scouts and parents," he said. "I'm very proud of the boys. And behind every good boy is a good parent."
           Scouts aided in the cookbook's production by collecting each recipe. Clevinger then recruited her secretary Jamie McClanahan, who volunteered her time to type each recipe. Mullins credits Clevinger and McClananhan with donating more of their time than anyone else on the project. His son Ryan Mullins, a former Eagle Scout, designed the cookbook's colorful and memorable cover. It is a collage of images the boy scouts will view on their trip, including the animals they will encounter and the famous locations they will see.
 

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
       A public hearing to discuss possible replacements for the Knox and Paw Paw voting precincts in the Knox District will be held Monday, May 15.
Members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors agreed to hold the public hearing, beginning at 10:15 a.m., to discuss possible replacement locations and options.
County Administrator W.J. Caudill noted neither precinct is ADA-compliant and as a result, he said they needed to be renovated, moved or replaced.
"There are several options for what you could do," Caudill said of making the precinct voting locations compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
He added that among the options was redrawing precinct lines within the Knox District which would allow the Paw Paw and Knox precincts to be consolidated; another which would allow precinct lines to be redrawn to incorporate Hurley Elementary-Middle School in the Knox precinct; or to build totally new voting buildings on property the county owns which it now allows a local church to use as a parking lot.
In the end, before making a decision, board members agreed to hold a public hearing to get input from residents who will be affected by any decision made.
Knox Supervisor Pat Justus made the motion to hold the hearing and North Grundy Supervisor Carroll Branham made the second. The vote was unanimous.

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by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
         The question Monday was not so much about how to take a Knox District bridge into the county road system, but rather, whether it should be taken into the county system and public funds expended on its maintenance.
         In the end, there was no formal action taken on the bridge, identified as Sarah Bridge.
        According to research on the bridge provided to the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors by County Road Engineer Marcus Stiltner, a deed conveying right of way to the county for the bridge was signed September 1, 2004, however the deed has never been recorded.
         The wooden bridge, which leads to the home of Sarah Dotson and to her son, Brian Dotson’s home, was designated "county road #2096, bridge only" and included a 40-foot right of way.
          All of the property is owned by Sarah Dotson, Stiltner said.
          The board, voted September 13, 2004 to add the bridge to the county road system, however, the plat and title report had not been completed at that time.
         At Monday’s meeting, Stiltner brought in a copy of the plat and asked the board for guidance on whether to proceed with getting the deed issue cleared up since it has not been recorded.
       Knox Supervisor Pat Justus made the motion for Stiltner to proceed; however, the motion was later withdrawn and never re-entered or put to a vote.
        Stiltner suggested first that he thought the board needed to look at the the issue hard to see if the bridge needed to be in the county road system.
        He said there is room for a turnaround at the end of the bridge, but he added, it is not specified in the right of way documents he has on hand.
         In a follow-up phone call Tuesday morning, Stiltner noted he had already talked to the coal road committee about the bridge last week.
         At the coal road committee meeting, he said, that committee had indicated it could not justify expending county funds on the bridge.