Today's News

    Bedford City Council is now in the process of developing its last city budget. Next May Bedford will have to hold elections for a town council as required by the city’s reversion to town status, slated for July 1, 2013. I’m sure the reversion will take place as scheduled. The members of the Virginia Commission on Local Government seemed pleased with what they saw when they came to Bedford on May 14. They also noted that the sparse attendance at the public hearing they held shows that there is no groundswell of public opposition.

    The Bedford County School Board found $1.5 million in cuts to balance its budget last week.
    The board held a four-hour work session Thursday to consider the budget cuts which were needed after the Bedford County Board of Supervisors cut its increase in local funding from $4.2 million to $2.5 million. The school board had requested the $3.5 million increase.
    Among the cuts made to help balance the budget:
    • No new buses will be purchased in the upcoming fiscal year;

    For over eight years, Eric Montgomery has been on a mission to close the final chapter of his great uncle Amin Isbir’s D-Day story. 
    Coxswain Amin Isbir, a member of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion, was reported killed in action on June 8, 1944.  His great nephew, Eric Montgomery questioned his date of death believing that he had been killed in action on D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Isbir’s commanding officer, Ensign Joe Vaghi, confirmed Montgomery’s suspicions. 

    While one area business was announcing this week that its local plant could close as the business restructures, another was announcing plans for expansion.
    Brooks Food Group, based out of Bedford, has closed its North Carolina plant and could do the same in Bedford. Meanwhile Mail America, based out of Forest, has announced plans to add 75 jobs over the next three years.

Brooks Food Group