What is going on in Fincastle?

I recently had a new resident of Fincastle tell me they were always finding out about events in the town after they occured.  I am not sure why there is no information available on the internet about Fincastle events.  I will attempt to list the main annual happenings here:

 January

Fincastle Community Twelfth Night Charity Concert will be
8th held on Saturday, January 8, 2011 at 7 p.m. at Attic Productions
Theater. The Twelfth Night Charity presents a concert of free
family entertainment for the entire community. This year’s
performers will feature nationally known Blue Highway, an
influential group in contemporary bluegrass. Admission is free
although tickets are required due to limited seating. Attendees are
asked to make cash and/or food donations at the concert. These
gifts will go to support the Botetourt Food Panty and the Botetourt
County Social Services’ Fuel Assistance Program.

1st - 10th Christmas lights come down sometime after or on new years day...not sure who sets that up.

14th 17th County offices closed for Lee Jackson and Martin Luther King days.

February

2nd Groundhog day, no event
14th Valentines day sometimes local churches or other civic groups have Valentine Day Dinner nothing showing up on the internet yet.
21st Presidents day Government closed, the rest of us work.

March

8th Fat Tuesday, some local parties no events listed
9th Ash Wednesday Catholic Church and Methodist church used to have a joint meeting and put ashes on their foreheads...not sure if that still happens.
Daylight Savings time 14th
17th St Patrick's day local parties no events.


April

1st April Fool's Day or Government decision day as I like to call it.
17th Palm Sunday, several churches meet at the courthouse then process through the town to services...starts at 10:30
22nd Good Friday Government likely closes since they rarely work.
23rd Saturday before Easter various churches have easter egg hunts and programs

24th Easter

May

5th Cinco de Mayo various local parties and event at Mexican Rest. In Daleville.
8th Mothers Day Churches have special services, everyone in the world goes out to eat.
30st Memorial day, no one in Fincastle cares about the veterans...no event

June

14th Flag Day sparadic flags flying around town.
19th Father's Day the town still doesn't care...no event
21 First day of Summer and Huckleberry's Birthday Summer Solstice no event but everyone should go to Natural Bridge and hang out at Foamhenge!

July

4th Fireworks at Breckinridge Elementary School, no real other activity, historically there were games, bands, food, and other events.  It is actually a pretty good fireworks show. You can sit very close to the action, just pay attention, sometimes they come into the crowd.

August

Everyones on vacation, no events
School sometimes starts during August.

September

5th Labor day, the town doesn't like laborers either...no event.

October

10th Columbus day, you guessed it Government off again, we work.
15th Annual Bank of Fincastle 5k/10k, this one is a big surprise to most newcomers since they close the roads for two hours on a Saturday morning and you can't get in or out or through town. Great event for the kids 500 to 1000 participants!
31st Halloween parade and candy exchange, bring an unopened bag of candy, parade up and down the street in costume, then get candy back. A good time is had by all. Trick or treating around town is also occurs.  If you live in town and are home...have 200 peices of candy or more.

November

11th Veterans Day, another Govt holiday no event.
24th Thanksgiving, some years there are dinner events for single, but nothing in the last few years.

December

22nd Winter Solstice...Foamhenge!
24th Community Christmas Service rotates between three churches.
25h Christmas, sometimes Christmas services.
31st, New Years Eve, big event at Courthouse Corner, Bells in churches and courthouse rung, people in the streets public drinking ignored, new year rung in. Must see if you are a resident.

Comment if you  want me to add events.

No water in Fincastle this morning? Who screwed up?

The water was out so I rode around and saw no leaks or crews working. I did see a water authority truck and then it came back on. Wasn't cold enough to freeze the system.

Perhaps while we were all working Friday and many of us on Monday, our water workers got a four day weekend! They forgot to check the pumps and the old tank ran dry. Anyone want to bet me that they got double time to fix their own error?

Don't you just love government efficiency?

Is the Fincastle Town Manager on the job yet?

I just noticed that many flags were at half mast for the tragety in Arizona, but not the town office flag.  Were we not concerned or was it an oversight?

It sure was quiet in Fincastle on Friday!

Plenty of parking places, no one wandering about town for hours getting the mail. Why? Lee Jackson day is a paid holiday for our local government employees.  Anyone else get that?  The bank was open.  The post office was open.  All the stores were open.  Strange that Botetourt county employees got a paid holiday.  No wonder the county is always tryng to increase our real estate taxes and fees.  They need all that money so they can take extra days off.

New Years Celebration Recap.

Downtown Fincastle was once again alive with celebration at midnight last night!  The crowd looked to be around 100 people.  I've seen anywhere from 50 to 500 people crowded onto the corner in the last 25 or so years we have been around. 

This year continued the trend of fewer people that has been occurring over the last several years.  I think that Drunk Driving enforcement as well as a reduction in the number parties in town has caused the drop in attendance.  Many of the folks who used to have big new years parties has passed on.  The Club on Roanoke St. is now owned by a church so there are no longer parties there.  I didn't notice if the Boltons Store location had an event, but that was another traditional location for parties on new years. 

Another reason is the lack of any type of advance notice to folks in the area about what is going on in Fincastle.  The attitude of many people is that newcomers should automatically know what is going on or perhaps they feel like it should be a private party for those "in the know".

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that the ringing of the bells in the various locations is a tradition passed down from family member to family member.  Each church has a family that has taken on the responsibility of being there every year to make sure the bells ring.  This tradition has gone on for many years...I don't really know how many but I do know that three or four generations in some families have rung the bells.  The Baptist church is in private hands so they could be ringing or perhaps letting whoever the Baptist family ringers ring.

That might be a good article later about who's doing it now.

New Years Eve in Fincastle

Fincastle has an interesting way of ringing in the new year.  Actually, they do "ring" in the new year!

There are four churches and the courthouse with bell towers that ring the village.  Folks go up in each of the towers and as the new year approaches, they ring the bell in each tower one by one every 12 seconds or so.  It goes in the same order until the stroke of midnight when the bell on the courthouse rings out the old year.

This year the ring pattern will be:
2    two rings
0    ten rings
1    one ring
10  ten rings

Then they will play taps and ring in the new year:
2    two rings
0    ten rings
1    one ring
1    one ring

The crowd usually gets a little antsy during this and doesn't pay proper attention to the details.

Next a guy fires off a shotgun and all the bells at all the places ring for 15 minutes or so.  sometimes there are fireworks as well, just a couple of blasts to bring in the new year.  This all happens a block from the sheriffs office so the pyrotecnics need to be discreet or hit and run.

Beverages people carry to the corner are ignored for the most part by the local constabulary, I've never seen anyone arrested at the event.

Latest Sign Alert for Fincastle!

Post about the new signs warning us about a sign in Fincastle.

http://shitthatpissesmeoff-huckleberry.blogspot.com/2010/12/signs-that-inform-you-about-signs.html

Fincastle Christmas Parade, how did it turn out?

The parade was greeted by a nice snowfall this year.  Not enough to effect the events but enough to make it look great and get everyone in the Christmas Spirit.

Interestingly enough, the Grand Marshall of the Parade was Voldemort...wait I mean Mayor Critzer, who has more than a passing resemblance to the evil one both in appearance and demeanor.  I guess the barrel has been completely scraped!

The parade got stuck at the return to Main St. per my prediction.  The delay seemed to last longer than usual but was eventually worked out.  There was a Jeep Club and Corvette Club in the parade as well as the usual groups.

We had libations, food, and good fellowship while we watched and joked and talked with the participants.

A good time was had by all.

Fincastle Christmas Parade, the real story.

Fincastle Virginia will have their annual Christmas parade on Saturday December 4th at 2pm.  The line up is at 1pm at Breckenridge Elementary School.  If you are running late to the lineup, you need to come in the back way from Springwood or the back road to the middle school or you will not be able to get to Breckenridge.

The Parade traditionally consists of lots of fire trucks, ambulances and church floats.   There are also some cute kids groups that march or have floats, look for the Fincastle Preschool float...it will be the one with the parents completely surrounding it to the point that you can't really see the kids.  It happens every year, kind of funny, guess we did it a couple of years ourselves, long ago.

The parade comes into town from the school turns on Main St. then turns onto Church St.  From there it proceeds up to Academy St. and over to Roanoke St. where it heads back to main.  Every year, when it heads back down main, it meets the tail end of the parade at Church St.  The parade then stops until someone figures out it's stuck and walks backwards down the route telling all the participants to close ranks until the parade can continue.  Not too sure why no one else seems to remember this year to year to attempt to fix the problem.

One other thing to watch for is every couple of years a new entry with a tractor trailer will fail to make the turn from Main to Church St.  There is a strategically located telephone pole that has seen damages ranging from rubs to complete removal.  A bonus to watching in that area is that you get to see the parade twice!  The judges traditionally sit in front of the old Baptist Church, now a residence.

There are usually some folks selling hot chocolate and so forth along the parade route and this year Charades Nostalgia Grill is supposed to open for the parade.

Afterwards, Santa shows up at the school to take orders from the local children.

Historic Halloween Haunted House in Fincastle!

Remember the haunted houses we used to do in the old Oldsmobile garage, now Ed Bordett's Art Studio, back in the 90's?  Does anyone have any pictures?  We were too busy setting it up and running the thing to take any.  We used to have several different areas in the room and some outside.  I remember Pete was a revolutionary or civil war guy with a live rifle.  We also had a running chain saw with no chain. 

Comment if you have pictures or remember.

What's going on in Fincastle for the holidays?

The Botetourt Chamber of Commerce sent out their weekly email of events going on and the Town of Buchanan had a list of items stretching into the new year.  Christmas Parade, lights, new years events, and even a Christmas tree burning on Jan. 6th.  Doesn't Fincastle do these sort of things?  Perhaps we may have an actual use for our town planner, letting us know what is going on in town!  Don't we have a parade, Lights, New Years bell ringing?  Perhaps we should let people know what is going on.  Or is it just for the elite town residents?  Perhaps the town is not a member of the chamber...they would most likely post the events anyway.

Christmas lights are on in Fincastle!

Heard the bucket truck and laughing kids riding around turning on the Christmas lights in Fincastle Friday night.  It brought back memories of when we used to do that with the kids riding up in the bucket truck with us and throwing the occasional bad bulb at a stray dog.  The bulb would pop and the dog would run off looking perplexed.  Always makes the town look better with the cheerful lights up and shining brightly.

New Town Planner for Town of Fincastle, Why?

The Botetourt View is reporting on the new town planner for Fincastle.  The town residents are paying for this individual but he states his goals as meeting with the county board of supervisors and working with Historic Fincastle to see what the town needs. I am sure that none of the board of supervisors or the tourism head from the county live in Fincastle.  Looking at the HFI site, I only recognize three of the listed board members as living in Fincastle, one other has deep roots but doesn't actually live in town.  The Chair appears to not be a town resident or a recent one is she is a resident.

Clearly, a town manager should have the best interest of those who pay his salary as his goal, regardless of the reasons those who hired him had to bring him to the job. 

There are two reasons the town is what it is today.

First, the town has traditionally resisted change.  The railroad wanted to locate here and the town fathers said no.  Several colleges tried to locate here...no as well.  When I moved here 20 years ago I was gung ho to change everything, after a couple of years we figured out that it was really fine the way it was.

Secondly, the town has always let folks do what they want as long as they don't impact the rights of others.  We have no review boards telling us what color we can paint our houses or if we can put siding on or put up a fence.  If we want to have a home business, that's fine as well. 

Actually I would argue that is one of the reasons Fincastle is the way it is today. Historically almost everyone had some sort of business in the home or lived in their place of business.  There are those currently in power that would like to change Fincastle into some sort of suburban subdivision, they want their section of town to strictly controlled to be only residential, single family residential in fact.  Even new subdivisions in all areas are realizing that places you live need to be mixed use...especially a small town. We need to purchase services locally and trade with our neighbors.

Finally, the town needs to focus on activities that bring the people of the town together, not tears them apart.  Secret letter writing campaigns focused on a select group, are not conducive of good neighbor relations.  If you want a position of responsibility in the town, say so, have and open an honest debate on the issues, not a secret petition or secret letter.

Let's all keep an eye on the new regime to make sure we don't see increases in taxes and costs like when Mayor Critzer raised the building permit fee for Fincastle from $15 to $300 when he first took office.  The funny thing is that the county does the work and you have to pay them as well!

Christmas Lights going up.

Various members of the Fincastle Town Council were seen putting up the Christmas Lights with some help from the phone company. Notable in his absense was Mayor Critzer. Of course, when he did show up back in the good old days, he would just hang around, talk and distract those actually doing the work, so they probably were better off with out him.

Good work to those who helped! Thanks for your contribution to the town.

How's the outsourcing of water and sewer working out in Fincastle Virginia?

The Town of Fincastle Virginia has outsourced the water and sewer system for several years.  The only example I have of how it's working, is when I noticed that there was water coming out of my meter box a couple of weeks ago.  I called the town office and was told that I needed to call the water authority in Roanoke.  Then I was told there was someone at the plant who could come by and check it out.  45 minutes later, no one had shown up so I called the water authority.  They had trouble figuring out where my address was, I guess because Fincastle is so big and complicated, but they finally seemed to understand.  When I headed out of town I saw a water authority truck in front of the old Baptist church, so I stopped and related my story. They said they would look at it.

I went to town and several hours later I was on the way back and my cell phone rang. It was the technician from the water authority, who was at my house.  He informed me the leak was on my side so I would have to take care of it.  I asked him to wait for me as I was only 5 minutes out, and he did.  When I arrived we determined that there was no water in the box when he got there and then found an old o ring on the ground so I said that the other guys must have fixed it.

He was disturbed that there were other guys involved.  I guess the local guys aren't supposed to fix things, we are supposed to have someone drive up from Roanoke. Anyway, he wanted to know where else they were working so I guess the town will pay twice for the two repairs that day.  Doesn't seem like the most efficient way to me!

A couple of months ago during another problem, one of the technicians said they were not allowed to do any work unless they spoke to Mayor Critzer. I asked how that worked when he was working and they said not so good!  Sometimes it takes hours to get hold of him.  Another example of government waste and mismanagement.

Who won the Fincastle Virginia Town Council election?

The election for Fincastle's ruling body was fraught with drama again as drama queen Scott Critzer attempted another stealth campaign to get back on the council or be mayor. I would tell you which, but he wrote one of secret letters to his list of minions that I am apparently not a member of! Pretty happy about that actually. The grapevine reports that he did not get the votes as Mary Bess Smith was also running a write-in campaign as well and may have diluted the effect of his ministrations.  Maybe the townspeople are starting to realize that talk does not equal action and that it's better to elect those who are completely open and honest about their intentions.