Today's Features

ne of Bedford County’s premier historic jewels, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, opens for a new season today. Governor Tim Kaine will be on hand for this year’s event.

    Long before he became our third president, Thomas Jefferson became governor of Virginia, serving as its first governor after the Old Dominion joined 12 other colonies in declaring their independence from Great Britain. The state house where Virginia’s General Assembly still meets today was designed by Jefferson.

    Although all county elementary schools participated in the Young Authors contest, Body Camp Elementary did something different.

    Brenda Dooley, the school’s reading coach, found a company that offered a kit that allowed winning stories to be turned into a bound book. Dooley took the children’s manuscripts and typed them leaving room for artwork. The children then drew pictures to illustrate their books. This took a good bit of time, but Dooley feels it was worth it and hopes to do it again next year.

If Frank Lewis missed work, people knew that something was wrong. He retired from Golden West Foods, owned by Brooks Food Group, last month after 49 years. He had perfect attendance for 45 of those years.

It’s been a successful year for The Electric Company.

    The business, located on Depot Street, takes it’s name from the fact that it occupies the building that formerly housed the city’s electric department. Patti Siehien and Al DeWeese purchased the old building in the autumn of 2007, after the electric department moved to new quarters. They opened for business on Jan. 8, 2008.