Distributed FREE Each Friday March 10, 2017 www.pcpatriot.com Locally Owned And Operated Community Bulletin Board Courthouse Four shooting items seeking returning to seat on scene of crime Dublin Sadler’s March 12 presentation will include 'Holy Grail' document Council By ALLEN WORRELL By MIKE WILLIAMS Carroll News, Hillsville The Patriot More than a century after the Carroll County Courthouse Tragedy, Four Dublin residents have reminders of the county's most infamous day will return to the scene filed the necessary paperwork to for a special presentation March 12. be qualified to run in the May 2 The only known live round to survive the shootout, which left five special election for town coun- people dead and several others injured, will be cil. part of the display. More significantly, a docu- The special election was ment that hasn't seen the light of day in several ordered following the death last decades, one researcher Howard Sadler calls "the August of councilman David Holy Grail" of the courtroom documents relating Shrewsbury. to the shootout, will also be part of the presenta- In September, Garland Bruce tion. was appointed by council to The Carroll County Historical Society will host serve in place of Shrewsbury the special presentation of "The Last Witness - A until a special election could be story of Friendship and Trust," an examination of held. the Courthouse Tragedy in Hillsville on March Any adult resident of the Town 14, 1912. The presentation will be held Sunday, Howard Sadler of Dublin who is eligible to vote March 12 at 2 p.m. at the Historic Carroll County who wished to become a candi- WEEKEND WEATHER Courthouse and will be led by Blacksburg realtor Howard G. Sadler, date for the council seat had until who has a unique connection to the saga. March 7 to submit a statement of SATURDAY SUNDAY "The Last Witness" is a unique view into the lives of Judge Thorton candidacy qualification with the Lemmon Massie and his friend and confidant, Howard Cecil Gilmer Pulaski County General Slight chance of rain after 1 A chance of snow before 1 pm. p.m. High near 40. Mostly cloudy, with a high near See CARROLL, page 17 See DUBLIN, page 2 Saturday Night: Snow likely 38. Chance of precipitation is with low around 25. One to 30%. three inches accumulation Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, Dailey and Vincent ticket sales possible. with a low around 23. begin Monday for April show From NRCC Tickets go on sale Monday, March 13, for a concert at New River Community College by Grammy nominated bluegrass duo Dailey and Vincent. Tickets will be available at www.nr.edu/fiddle, Pulaski County Visitors Center or NRCC Office of Workforce Development, Edwards Hall, begin- ning at 8 a.m. Reserved seating tickets are $35 each and advance general admission tickets are $25 each. Tickets will also be available at the door for $35 each. Reserved tickets are available online only. Spring Forward... Dailey and Vincent will be in concert at NRCC on Saturday, April 29. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be held in 117 Edwards Hall. Doors ...Fall Back! will open at 6:30 p.m. Both Dailey and Vincent were raised in musical Turn Your Clocks Ahead One families and have played bluegrass music since Photo courtesy of NRCC Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent coming back Hour Saturday Night See TICKETS, page 2 to Dublin April 29. Page 2 - The Patriot - Friday, March 10, 2017 The Sally Mountain Show Tickets alongside his sister, Rhonda Vincent. He was a member of Continued from page 1 Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder and has performed and they were children. Jamie recorded with artists including Dailey has worked with Doyle Dolly Parton, Nora Jones, Lawson and Quicksilver as lead Emmylou Harris, Earl Scruggs, vocalist, baritone and tenor Vince Gill, Keith Urban and singer, bass player, and guitarist more. and has recorded with Dolly More information about the Parton and Rhonda Vincent. show is available from Roger Darrin Vincent began playing Adkins at 540-674-3600, ext. and singing bluegrass music as 4307, and online at a child with his family band, www.nr.edu/fiddle. PCHS photo Anyone For Some ‘Green Eggs and Ham?’ Mark Hanks, C.T.E. Administrator at Pulaski County High School reads "Green Eggs and Ham" to Mrs. Roseberry's Child Care class during Read Across America Week. The children then sampled some deli- cious green eggs and ham made by students and Child Care assistant Yvonne Osborne. Council questioned on property values in Pulaski By MIKE WILLIAMS in the area that properties in tive property. By attractive I The Patriot Radford, Christiansburg, don't mean pretty, I mean one Blacksburg and even Wytheville that is not deteriorating before What started as a question tend to be 130 percent to 150 your eyes," he said. from a citizen on property val- percent more expensive than He asked council what it had ues, turned into a "here's where similar properties in Pulaski. done to "proactively address the we are now" type of discussion Payne noted that evidence of fact our property values are in during Tuesday's meeting of the difference in values could be decline and are disproportionate- Pulaski Town Council. seen in the last property reassess- ly less than in our neighboring Council meeting regular Clark ment conducted in 2014. towns." Payne posed a question to coun- "My question is, what has the Town Manager Shawn Utt cil during the public comment town done to ensure that our responded that, with the 2014 period of Tuesday's meeting con- property values increase in a reassessment, property values cerning property values - and similar manner to our neighbor- had fallen in town by 4.5 percent why they seem to lag behind the ing communities," Payne asked. to 5 percent overall. values of similar properties in Payne, who moved to Pulaski "That's when the property communities surrounding from the Richmond area in 2005, maintenance priority began with Pulaski. said he understood that across council and the code enforce- Payne told council he had Pulaski, property values declined ment efforts began," Utt noted. noticed in the different real estate between 7 and 10 percent with While code enforcement efforts - listing books that are circulated the 2014 reassessment. That was- aimed at forcing property owners n't the case, he said, on his street to maintain their property - have (Henry Avenue) where property been slowed by the need to final- Dublin owners saw values decrease by ly hire a code enforcement offi- 30 percent. cer, Utt said the effort is begin- Continued from page 1 Payne told council he could ning to gain traction. see only one reason for such a "[Town Engineer Bill] Pedigo Registrar's office. decline on his street. has three or four (code viola- According to Registrar Kathy "Nothing is being done to tions) he's moving on, and I'd Webb, four Dublin citizens have require property owners to try qualified to be on the May 2 bal- and maintain a secure and attrac- See VALUES, page 3 lot. They are Bruce, Norman W. Dowdy, II, Jared M. Smith and James L. Thompson. According to Webb, polls are open May 2 from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Dublin Lions Club. The candidate winning on May 2 will begin his term the next day, May 3, and serve until June 30, 2020. The Patriot - Friday, March 10, 2017 - Page 3 back on it either. town. But if the perception is "We've (the town) got the we're making progress and doing Values Randolph House and a number of positive things, then that gets peo- Continued from page 2 other properties in Pulaski that are ple's attention. I think we're on tremendous eyesores. the right track." like to think it will be a fruitful Unfortunately, the local govern- Councilman David Clark summer," Utt said. ment gets to inherit those because echoed East's comments, adding Mayor Nick Glenn told Payne the investors have taken all the that council has worked hard to the issue in Pulaski is both eco- profit and don't even live here in improve the perception of nomic and image. most cases. They don't care about Pulaski. "We don't hold the same image us. Now it's our issue and our as some of the communities you expense, and it's not cheap," "I think that's an uphill climb mentioned," Glenn told Payne. Glenn stated. we've got some momentum on "And that depresses property val- Glenn asked Utt what the cost now," Clark said. ues." might be to demolish the old "We've got things for people to Glenn said he had been told by Randolph House in Pulaski. Utt do, reasons for people to come a native of the town that morning responded that it would cost in the here and look around, and many that, "if you really look at Pulaski, $250,000 range. "That comes more on the horizon. I believe it is a very ugly little town." back to us," Glenn told Payne. we're going in a direction in But, he said, the person also "If I could sweep my hand which the town is improving, and Employee Of The Month made the point that, "Pulaski is an across the town and make all the more people are going to see that Whitney Cecil (center) has been named Pulaski Health and Rehab’s industrial town in transition, just ugly go away, our property values the negative assessments were Employee of the Month for January.