Business

Tim Deaton and his friend, Matt Shaw, both bicycle enthusiasts, got tired of having to go to Lynchburg to buy bicycle parts. Deaton talked to other bike enthusiasts in the area that had the same problem.

This looked like a business opportunity to Deaton and he decided to open a bicycle shop here. As a result, Liberty Bikes and Boards will open for business on May 29.

Their name is Pizza, but their business is bagels.

Michael and Beverly Pizza opened Blue Ridge Bagels in the old Fisher's Restaurant building in Bedford, across 4th Street from Smyth, formerly Piedmont Label. The couple came here from a rural area in Central Florida where Michael had a construction company.

"I worked construction all my life," said Michael, now 37, "so this is a new venture for me."

Most of that construction experience involved running his own company, so business is not new to him.

"When I was 19, I started my company," he said.

Sebastiano Stia has been run over by "The Bus."

Stia currently lives on Scruggs Road on the Franklin County side of Smith Mountain Lake. A few years ago, he was working on a freelance photo assignment which took him to a Pittsburgh Steelers-Philadelphia Eagles game. This work gets a man on the sidelines of pro football games. A sports photographer needs to be alert and quick as more than getting good shots is at stake. At one point during this game, Stia was just not quick enough.

"Jerome Bettis is running with the ball," Stia recalled.

Through experience, Randy Holden, who has several dogs of his own, knows when someone has pets it's hard to just pick up and go on a trip.

That reality helped him decide a few months ago to open his own house and pet-sitting service, Whisker Watchers.

Holden said he knows how he wants his pets and home to be looked after when he leaves town. "We have our needs when we want to go on vacation," Holden said. "That's exactly what I offer, the same thing I would want offered by another pet sitter."