VMI football coach Ashley Ingram talks with left tackle Tristan Woodley during an April 10 practice in Lexington. Woodley is the only returning offensive lineman who started all 12 games last season.
VMI football coach Ashley Ingram talks with left tackle Tristan Woodley during an April 10 practice in Lexington. Woodley is the only returning offensive lineman who started all 12 games last season.
Caution tape surrounds the site of a collapsed event tent outside Eastlake Community Church on Friday evening, with folding chairs scattered across the ground.
MONETA — Eastlake Community Church came together for a service of "healing and hope" Sunday following a tragic mass casualty event during the church's 20th anniversary celebration Friday.
An 85-year-old man died, and 22 other people were injured at the Moneta church near Smith Mountain Lake.
Strong winds from evening thunderstorms picked up the rented, 12,000-square-foot tent and then collapsed it on the crowd underneath at approximately 6:45 p.m., according a statement issued by Bedford County.
The tent was said to have seating for 1,500 people, but no official count of people inside at the time of the incident has been released.
Abbey Johnston, acting chief of Bedford County Fire and Rescue, said Friday evening after the incident that Eastlake Community Church Pastor Troy Keaton was in the process of asking people to evacuate the tent due to the weather when the incident occurred.
"They just didn't have enough time," Johnston said. "It happened very quickly."
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Jeff Keaton, the pastor's brother, said winds started blowing during the event and his brother tried to make his way to the stage before the tent fell.
"My brother hopped up on the platform to say to everyone to go to their cars and couldn't get the words out of his mouth when the most powerful gust of wind I've ever been a part of picked that tent up," Keaton said.
Keaton called it a miracle more people were not seriously injured or killed. He said those currently in the hospital are expected to fully recover.
"That tent got picked up and I looked up and it was probably 100 feet in the air and somehow it blew over top of all those hundreds of people in there," Keaton said.
The large poles holding up the tent came down and struck multiple individuals, Keaton said.
Emergency calls came in describing the incident as a mass casualty event, Johnston said. Moneta Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department was already on the scene during the event and was able to provide immediate aid.
"Initially, I'm told it was a very chaotic scene trying to account for the individuals," Johnston said.
Johnston said 11 individuals were treated and released at the scene, and another 11 people were taken to local hospitals, while one person died at the scene. That individual was later confirmed to be church member and former Smith Mountain Lake resident Bob Stouffer, 85.
The tent was rented for the multiple-day celebration. According to a news release from Bedford County, the tent had passed an inspection conducted by the Bedford County Division of Building Inspections on Tuesday.
Jeff Keaton praised Stouffer, who had been a longtime member of the church. He said Stouffer was instrumental in helping the church acquire the property where the church is now located. Stouffer was originally from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and had recently returned there.
"He got to go to heaven from a place that he loved dearly. It is a place that he impacted immensely," Keaton said.
Multiple Virginia politicians have responded on social media in the hours after the tent collapse. Gov. Abigail Spanberger responded with praise for the first responders and prayers for the church. Rep. Morgan Griffith also offered prayers shortly after the incident.
Roanoke Del. Sam Rasoul called the incident a tragedy in a social media post on Friday. Rocky Mount Mayor Holland Perdue offered thoughts and prayers for the members of the church and everyone impacted.
Jason Dunovant (540) 981-3324
Participants in The Wild Way learned how to use a stand-up paddleboard during an outing to Smith Mountain Lake in Hardy. The training was to prepare for an expedition on the James River the following day.
Wild Way campers move their paddleboards down the Hardy Road boat ramp as they prepare to learn.
A Wild Way camper has a big smile during the lessons in paddleboarding Monday at the Hardy Road boat ramp. The Wild Way is a Roanoke-based nonprofit offering outdoor experiences to girls ages 9 to 14.
HARDY — Nearly a dozen girls got an introduction to stand-up paddleboarding Monday as The Wild Way made a stop at the Hardy Ford Boat Ramp on Smith Mountain Lake.
The Wild Way is a nonprofit in the Roanoke Valley with a mission to provide outdoor, expedition-based experiences to girls to boost their confidence, resilience and curiosity. Focusing on girls ages 9 to 14, the organization provides approximately 200 girls per year with activities that include hiking, camping, rock climbing, paddle sports, caving and more. The goal of the program is to instill a love for the outdoors, while also providing new experiences that increase girls’ self-esteem.
Executive Director Alex Siple founded The Wild Way in 2021, because she has personally experienced the transformational impact of the outdoors. An avid hiker, biker and paddler, Siple has found inner strength and inner peace in the many hours that she has spent pushing her mental and physical boundaries. She wanted to share this experience with others, especially young women who can benefit the most from confidence-building opportunities.
The girls were scheduled to apply the skills they learned on Monday when they were to transition from lake to river on Tuesday. As part of a five-day camp, they were to paddleboard on the James River from Gala to Craigs Creek. Working with an American Canoe Association-certified stand-up paddleboarding instructor, the girls will learn how to prep and pack their boards, learn the different strokes and maneuvers to control their SUPs, read the river, navigate small rapids and learn more about river flora and fauna.
“Learning the skills and maneuvers necessary to independently paddle their SUPs through river rapids and in other challenging conditions teaches the girls that they can do hard — and sometimes scary — things,” Siple said. “What may seem frustrating and daunting on the first day of camp becomes fun with enough hard work and patience. We love watching the girls grow to love a new sport, appreciate the outdoors, and acknowledge their personal strength and capacity to grow better and stronger through effort.”
Services are offered on a sliding-scale fee and are free to families who are in need. Fee reductions and fee waivers are always available.
For more information, go to www.thewildway.org.
Jim Bailey, superintendent of Booker T. Washington National Monument near Westlake, gives a tour of the historic park during Juneteenth commemorations in 2025.
Booker T. Washington National Monument is marking the Juneteenth holiday this weekend with three days of special programming commemorating the 161st anniversary of the famous educator, orator and author's emancipation.
The Juneteenth celebration begins Friday with a series of guided programs and activities that highlight Washington's enslaved childhood on the Burroughs plantation. Washington was born on the plantation where he was later freed at the age of 9 following the end of the Civil War.
Washington details becoming free in his autobiography "Up from Slavery," which he wrote in 1901. Union soldiers traveled to many plantations in the weeks and months after the Civil War announcing freedom for the enslaved.
Juneteenth marks the date of June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to free the enslaved there. It was one of the last areas where slavery was still ongoing, essentially ending the practice in the United States.
Washington's freedom likely came much earlier. The Confederate Army surrendered at nearby Appomattox Court House on April 9.
Ranger Abbi Smithmyer said the location where Washington's freedom was announced hasn't been lost to time. People can still come and see exactly where his family was freed.
"You can stand on the same ground that 9-year-old Booker stood when he was freed," Smithmyer said. "You can stand in the same spot where they heard the Emancipation Proclamation and it finally getting enforced."
Smithmyer said the park is unique as it was formerly a plantation that enslaved people. It later became known more for Washington's early childhood and how he was freed.
"It's a landscape of slavery," Smithmyer said of the early history of the property. "But it becomes one of freedom."
Some of the programs on Friday will showcase that very spot of emancipation. Others will showcase the lives of the enslaved while working on the plantation.
Programs will start at 10 a.m. and continue until 6 p.m. Friday.
On Saturday, the park will hold its annual Juneteenth concert featuring a variety of performances. The Celebration of Freedom Gospel Concert is set to begin at 11 a.m. and continue until 4 p.m.
The concert will include performances from Michael Boone, Sonny Brown Xperience, The Napper Singers, Perkins and EnVision, Larnell Starkey and The Spiritual Seven Gospel Singers, Pastor Milton Hardy Jr. and the Joy Bells.
The concert has been a popular part of the Juneteenth programming at the park for decades. It has only grown in popularity since Juneteenth was declared a national holiday in 2021.
The event will conclude Sunday with another series of guided programs and presentations featuring the life and legacy of Washington. Programs will begin Sunday at 10 a.m. and continue until 3 p.m.
All programs are free and open to the public.
Jason Dunovant (540) 981-3324
RICHMOND — With two weeks left before Virginia's operating budget expires, General Assembly budget negotiators are preparing to meet Tuesday for the first time in more than 14 weeks in hopes of reaching an agreement on a new two-year spending plan to take effect on July 1.
Torian
House Appropriations Chairman Luke Torian, D-Prince William, confirmed on Monday that the 11 members of the budget conference committee — six from the House of Delegates and five from the Senate — are scheduled to meet at noon after the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee hears public presentations on the state revenue outlook from the administration of Gov. Abigail Spanberger and a new Senate proposal for a budget compromise.
The conference committee hasn't met as a whole since March 6, when members met with Spanberger for breakfast near the end of the 60-day legislative session, which ended eight days later without a budget agreement. The assembly met again in special session on April 23, but again without a meeting of negotiators, as Torian and Senate Finance Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, met privately to find a day to bridge a $1.9 billion revenue gap between the House and Senate budget proposals with additional money from the state's lucrative data center industry.
It hasn't happened, and now lawmakers are running out of time for a deal, after the House released a proposed budget compromise on Friday with Spanberger's support, and Lucas responded with the outline of a new competing proposal from the Senate.
One of those negotiators, Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, said he has grown increasingly exasperated with the failure of the budget conferees to meet to reconcile differences in their proposals for revenue and spending over the next two years.
"We're in serious jeopardy right now," he said in a telephone interview on Monday. "I remain hopeful and confident that it's going to happen, but I'm frustrated."
Deeds said he was encouraged that House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, said on Friday that the new House budget proposal is "not a take it or leave it deal" and that the Senate could contribute to a final plan.
"We've got to get together in one room," he said.
Lucas has been trying to build public pressure behind the Senate proposal — first unveiled on Feb. 22 — to repeal the state's 16-year-old sales and use tax exemption on purchases of computer equipment and software for data centers. She's conducting a "listening tour" in Hampton Roads, where she appeared on Sunday; Prince William County on Monday night; and Chesterfield County on Tuesday evening. She was not available for comment on Monday.
But Torian and Spanberger oppose outright repeal of the tax exemption, which Lucas and the assembly extended just three years ago for data center companies that make big investments in Virginia. They warn that repealing the tax break before its scheduled expiration in 2035 could damage Virginia's business reputation, undermine the state economy and deprive localities of data center investments that they want to help them pay for schools and other local government services.
The original House budget would have required data centers to meet stricter standards for environmental protection and invest more in clean energy in return for the tax break, but the new proposal would leave those issues to a proposed commission that would make recommendations by Nov. 1 for the assembly session that will begin in January.
The new House plan would rely on $1.5 billion in new revenues projected by the Spanberger administration in a newly released economic forecast for the current fiscal year and the two years beginning on July 1. Lucas and other Senate budget leaders have responded skeptically, saying most of the money would be available only one time and the state needs additional recurring revenues to pay for ongoing services.
Secretary of Finance Mark Sickles, seen being sworn into his role in January, will outline a new report on May state revenues Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Secretary of Finance Mark Sickles, a former House budget negotiator, will outline a new report on state revenues in May — with one month left in the current fiscal year — that shows tax collections $837 million ahead of the budget forecast, which the governor and lawmakers could carry into the next two-year budget cycle.
But Sickles cautioned last week that most of the additional money comes from unpredictable sources, such as income taxes paid on stock market gains and lower-than-expected refunds to taxpayers.
The administration remains concerned about the U.S. economy under President Donald Trump, who it says has hurt the state's economy with deep cuts to the federal workforce and spending, and a war with Iran that has fueled inflation through higher energy prices. Virginia has lost 41,400 jobs in the current fiscal year, primarily in the federal government, manufacturing and the professional business services sector that includes federal contractors.
"While the most recent labor market data was positive, conditions remain weak both nationally and in the Commonwealth," Sickles said in his monthly revenue letter to the governor on Friday. "Meanwhile, surging inflation has put major strain on household budgets and brought (interest) rate hikes back into discussion at the Federal Reserve."
However, consumer sentiment rose in a survey on Friday, a week after reaching a record low, as gasoline prices began to subside with news of an impending deal between the U.S. and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for shipments of oil, fertilizer and other petroleum-based goods from the Persian Gulf.
Virginia consumers also continued to spend money on goods and services in April, as reflected in sales tax collections in May. Sales tax revenues were up by $32 million in May, compared to the same month a year earlier, and $133.8 million for the first 11 months of the fiscal year.
"Sales tax collections were unusually strong for the second month in a row," Sickles told the governor. "Unfortunately, some of this growth is being fueled by households spending down their savings while prices rise."
Michael Martz (804) 649-6964
Del. Torian: 'This budget provides affordable living in the commonwealth'
