Sometimes the obstacles encountered in life can be life's biggest teacher and for Dr. Charles King, the obstacles he has faced through the years have made him all that much stronger in ambition, drive and resolve.
   The fact is, King says in looking back on his life and his almost 40-year tenure as president of Southwest Virginia Community College, his life is a story of something good coming out of a bad situation.
   Some have referred to him as a legend and a pioneer champion of education, but as Virginia Community College System Chancellor Dr. Glenn DuBois put it when King announced his retirement last month, "even legends retire."
   For King, that retirement is scheduled to take place January 1 and as he prepares to retire as SwVCC's founding and only president to date, King remembers the cooperative regional effort it took to establish the college and the successes it has experienced along the way.
   Sitting in his office on a sunny late summer morning, surrounded by windows offering panoramic views of the Southwest Virginia mountains King and his wife, Mary, have come to call home, King, now 72, remembers well how it all started.
   "I do believe God had his hands on my life and brought me through to here," King says.
    But where it all started, he admits, is not when he first came to the mountains of Southwest Virginia, but rather when he grew up the youngest of eight children, raised by his widowed mother, Ida Mae Chandler King. His father was the late Hiram (Chobee) King, a barber.
    "I grew up filthy rich," King quips, adding that while in money the family might have been poor, in love and pride, they were rich.
    He grew up in Florida during the latter part of the Great Depression and athletics, he says, were his claim to fame.
    "I was born an all-around athlete, loving every sport offered," King recalls.
    He met his wife-to-be in the ninth grade when she transferred to his school and he says their meeting came about because her father ran a truck line and the club he was in wanted to have a hay ride.
    "They put me up to invite her in order to get her Dad's truck," King recalls with a laugh. "Not only did I get the truck, but I got the love of my life."
    In high school he excelled in athletics and he earned a football scholarship to the University of Florida. He still remembers packing up his clothes in a brown paper bag and arriving on the Gainesville campus.

  Buchanan County residents wishing to properly dispose of household hazardous wastes may do so next month during a collection event at Riverview Elementary-Middle School.
   In July 2006, the Cumberland Plateau Regional Waste Management Authority and the counties of Buchanan, Dickenson and Russell agreed to implement a regional Household Hazardous Waste Collection event. The goal of the HHW collection event is to educate residents of the importance of disposing of HHW materials in a correct manner. 
   In Buchanan County, the Household Hazardous Waste Collection event will be held at the Riverview Elementary/Middle School Parking Lot in Grundy, October 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  The event in Dickenson County will be held at the Dickenson County Solid Waste Transfer Station in Fremont, October 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
   In Russell County, the HHW Collection event will be held at the Russell County Governmental Office Parking Lot October 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
   Household hazardous waste that will be accepted at the events will include: paint, polishes, varnishes, Ni-Cad, Alkaline and Dry Cell Batteries, Paint related materials, Turpentine, Aerosol cans, Adhesives, Household Cleaners, Antifreeze, Fuel Additives, Gasoline, Mercury, Pesticides, Transmission fluid, Bleach and Pool chemicals. 
   Household hazardous waste that will not be accepted during the events include: Automotive Batteries, Motor Oil, Commercial and Industrial waste, tires, Radioactive Material, Explosives, Bullets and all cylinders.

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
   Area vendors have been asked to submit proposals to map unmapped parcels of land in Buchanan County and to perform GIS work related to those parcels.
    The county began advertising this week for proposals related to the services being sought and agreed all proposals must be received no later than October 15.  The vendor selected to do the job will be selected on or before October 25 with mapping to begin immediately thereafter.
    The successful bidder will be chosen through the competitive negotiations process.
    An overview of the project notes the county which is 508 square miles in size, has a population of approximately 26,978 people with 11,000 housing units and 4,500 mobile homes. There are approximately 21,000 parcels of land and 3,700 mineral accounts.
    The proposal seeks per parcel bids for mapping.
    Specifically, it notes there will be no appraisals needed, since the reassessment is currently nearing completion and that work has already been or is being performed now.
    The successful mapping bidder, however, will be expected to cooperate with the assessor so that the end result is that “all parcels are mapped and appraised so that the appropriate tax assessment notices may be issued for each mapped parcel subject to taxation.”
    It also requires coal mapping reflected in a seam-by-seam inventory to the extent that information is available through governmental agencies and mineral owners.
    Mineral mapping is also required to be initiated for any unmapped mineral tracts.
     All information needs to be updated by December 31, 2006, the RFP states.
     The GIS work section requires the successful bidder to transform and fit the county’s existing tax parcel information to the new GIS and aerial map data and to create a parcel layer which fits properly with the county’s aerial imagery. It further requires the update of the parcel data layer to include all parcel change recorded since the last update in order to bring the county’s GIS parcel information current.
    It also calls for a comprehensive listing and mapping of previously unmapped mobile homes; computerized appraisal cards; and a listing of unmapped residential parcels, commercial properties and industrial properties
    Real property owners of previously unmapped parcels whose properties are identified in the process will receive notices advising them of the mapping and informal public hearings will be conducted by the company hired to do the mapping.