Some have called them the "Grundy Paparazzi" and their yellow hard hats document the moniker, as armed with cameras and tripods, Russ Belcher and Roger Mayhorn position themselves to capture the next building in downtown Grundy as it is reduced to rubble and becomes a part of the town's history.
    Some have mistakenly thought they worked with A&E . . .  or that they hired on with Bizzack Inc. or E. Luke Greene Co. to be a part of the Rt. 460 road project. Some have even asked them how to get a job on the road project.
   Others have just wondered why a Silver Spring, Md., man and a retired English and French teacher who lives on Compton Mountain, would give up their summer to spend it behind a video camera or a still camera, taking hours and hours of video footage and thousands of still shots as the town of Grundy literally falls down all around them.
    For Belcher and Mayhorn, the answer to that question is simple.
    History.
    Neither is in it for the money, although both hope to create a documentary of the town and possibly a book.
    More important to both is the history of what's happening and a desire to preserve that history and document it for the generations to come.
    As the Grundy Flood Control project advances and the last of the downtown buildings come down, Belcher and Mayhorn have become a constant part of the downtown demolition scene, working their way in and out of buildings, documenting their content and capturing them as they come down -- brick by brick.
     Belcher, the son of the late E. Russell Belcher and June Belcher, now lives in Silver Spring, Md., with is wife, Marian. A carpenter-contractor in the Washington D.C. area for 25 years, Belcher started to delve into the video documentary arena a couple of years ago.
     Belcher, who grew up in Grundy, went to college at Emory and Henry where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in biology. Later, he went on to work toward a masters degree in medical anthropology and he attended art school in D.C., where he continued to delve into photography -- an interest he developed in his early teens while growing up here.
    It was while he was in Silver Spring that he learned all about the Grundy project after reading a story on the project carried in the Washington Post.
    He has been back to his native Grundy on and off for the past five to six years with video camera in hand, but as the Grundy project continued to advance, he says, he got serious about it roughly a year ago and began to document the town as it was.
     In May, he became a regular in Grundy and began living here by the week, traveling home to Silver Spring on the weekends.
     "I got interested in the project and started videoing when I came to visit my folks more frequently as they got older," Belcher says.
     In the process, he adds, he gained something he didn't even come into the project expecting to find.

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
   Work on the Rt. 680 project on Bill Young Mountain should begin as early as late fall, Virginia Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Conrad Hill told members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors earlier this month.
    Hill noted that the road should go to ad in September .
    “Everything is going well on it,” Hill said. “Rt. 680 looks to be okay at this point.”
     In other business, several amendments were made to the Buchanan County Coal Haul Road Plan for 2006-07 including motions agreed to unanimously to appropriate $140,000 for the Rt. 645 project; $6,800 for a design change on a South Grundy project; and $1,182.96 for a scope of work change on Lambert Road in the Garden District.
    Board members also adopted a resolution ratifying the award of an emergency  coal haul road contract to J&J Contractors Inc. for $32,650 for repairs on Jim Rowe Hollow following flooding.
     A resolution amending J&J Contractors' Coal Haul Road contracts to change the subcontractor from Mac Construction to Shortt & Son was also approved at J&J’s request.
     Board members also ratified the approval of a negotiated coal haul road contract in the Prater District in the amount of $20,344 to J&J Contractors.
     Nine invoices for work completed by J&J, Mac and Looney's Trucking in the South Grundy, North Grundy, Rocklick and Garden Districts were also approved for payment.  
     Board members also agreed to add County Road 4364, Deep Woods Road in the Hurricane District to the county road system. The road is .20 miles in length and has a turn around of 1,087. It serves five dwellings.
     Justus asked again if there was any way for county roads on which no rights of way or deeds can be located, but which have been worked in the past by the county could be grandfathered into the county road system.
     Assistant County Attorney Lee Moise noted County Attorney Mickey McGlothlin is working on an amended road policy.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now. For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today!

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
     Disadvantaged students at Riverview Elementary-Middle School will get to take part in a special field day event to be sponsored by the Grundy Kiwanis Club.
     Kiwanis Club President Jon Rife asked the board of supervisors earlier this month to consider funding the event and South Grundy Chairman Roger Rife agreed to provide $1,000 from his parks and recreation funding.
     Rife noted if the Riverview event goes well, the Kiwanis Club hopes to make it a countywide event next year.
     “We’d like to get on our feet before we tackle the whole county,” Rife said. “We’d like to do it for one school and get our feet wet and then expand to the whole county next year.”
     Rife said plans call for eight to 10 field events and games to be be held. Students will receive a t-shirt and ribbons, however, Rife said the events are not about competition, but about participation.
     “We want to work with youngsters to try to help them feel better about themselves,” Rife said.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now. For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today!