Roanoke's Budget Cuts, Evans Spring Returns to Council, and Moon Dirt in Rocky Mount

Full Transcript

Intro

Alex: Welcome to The Roanoke Weekly. I’m Alex.

Morgan: And I’m Morgan. It’s Monday, May 18th, and here’s your week in the Star City.

Alex: Locally curated, AI-narrated. We pull from great local sources like the Roanoke Times, Cardinal News, WSLS, and WDBJ7, and we encourage you to support them.

This week, a lot of it comes back to money. The city making hard calls, the school board making harder ones, and a couple of bills landing on your kitchen table.

Morgan: And on the lighter side, it’s Memorial Day weekend. The grills come out, the pools come open, and there’s a parade on Park Avenue. Let’s get into it.

The Lead: Roanoke Adopts the Budget, the School Board Does the Math

Alex: The Roanoke City Council adopted the next fiscal year’s budget last Monday. The vote was five to two. The number is 421 and a half million dollars, which is about a 3 percent increase from this year. The real estate tax rate stays where it is, at one dollar twenty-two cents per hundred dollars of assessed value. No tax hike.

But there was a 19 million dollar shortfall to close, so the budget gets there with cuts. Per the Roanoke Times and Cardinal News, the city eliminated about 30 positions, took 50 million dollars worth of capital improvement projects off the table, froze hiring on existing vacancies, reduced staff raises, and pushed back some major building improvements.

Morgan: And the no votes? Who voted against, and why?

Alex: Vice Mayor Terry McGuire and Councilman Nick Hagen. Hagen told Cardinal News his objection is what he called a moral one. He’s been opposed to the council pay raises that started last year, and he says Roanoke’s tax rate is high compared to other localities in the region. McGuire said he didn’t feel he had enough information through the budget process, and that the council and the city manager need more accountability going forward.

Mayor Joe Cobb framed it as a tough but careful budget. He told the Roanoke Times, quote, “All of this was done without raising taxes, while adjusting to a significant slowing of revenue projections and a thoughtful reduction in expenditure.”

Now, the school side. That’s where families are going to feel this.

Morgan: Right, because the city budget gave the schools a small bump, but the schools were facing their own deficit on top of that.

Alex: Sixteen and a half million dollars, originally. Driven by the new state school funding formula and rising operating costs. The board had done one round of cuts earlier. On Tuesday, they did the second round, and it passed unanimously. Three million dollars in additional savings.

So here’s what’s actually getting reduced. PLATO, which is the gifted-and-talented program in Roanoke City Schools, gets cut back. The activity buses, the ones that get middle school and high school kids home after after-school activities, those will only run Monday through Thursday, and only during spring sports season. That alone saves about 230 thousand dollars. Preschool classes for three-year-olds get reduced. And there are cuts to professional development and trainings for staff.

Morgan: That’s a lot for families to absorb in one fall. The gifted kids losing program time, the after-school athletes losing rides home on Fridays, the three-year-olds losing seats.

Alex: And the school board members said that publicly. Board member Joyce Watkins told WDBJ7, quote, “This is one of the hardest decisions we had to make as board members and we don’t take it lightly.” She also noted at the meeting that every program has someone who cares deeply about it, and that the board considered everything they could.

The final line-item school budget gets a vote on June 9th. That’s pending whatever the state ends up doing with its budget. So some of this could shift. But the direction is set.

Morgan: If you have a kid in PLATO, or a teenager who rides the activity bus on a Friday, this fall is going to look different.

Alex: It is. And it’s worth keeping the broader picture in mind, which is that this is the second consecutive year of significant cuts at the city level. Cardinal News pointed out there’s still about 19 million dollars in former school money the city now controls, plus some unspent pandemic relief funds. How that gets allocated is the next conversation.

The Rundown: News & Notes

Alex: All right, to the rest of the week.

First one is tonight, in council chambers. The Evans Spring development plan is back before the Roanoke City Council. Public hearing at 7 p.m. at the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building.

A quick refresher for anyone new to the story. Evans Spring is a 150-acre tract of undeveloped, privately owned land in northwest Roanoke, across from Valley View Mall. It’s right up against Melrose-Rugby, Fairland, and Villa Heights, which are predominantly Black neighborhoods. In 2024, the council voted four to three to approve a master plan calling for commercial and mixed-use development, plus a 50-million-dollar-plus interchange off Interstate 581. That vote did not sit well with a lot of the community.

So per the Roanoke Times, tonight the council has three options on the table. Option one, leave the 2024 plan alone. Option two, the minor tweaks the Planning Commission recommended in April. Option three, major changes, including adding conservation as an acceptable use of the land, and replacing the big-box commercial language with education, mixed-use, and parks.

Morgan: And there’s an organized push for the conservation option.

Alex: There is. The Blue Ridge Land Conservancy has been talking with some of the landowners about purchasing part of the tract for a nature park. Their executive director, David Perry, told the Roanoke Times, quote, “Right now the plan doesn’t conceive of that. The plan is mostly big-box retail and some mixed use and some residential, and conservation is sort of an afterthought.” Stephen Niamke of the Friends of Evans Spring group is also planning to be at the meeting.

A lot else is on the agenda tonight too. Amendments to the 2024 citywide rezoning, the one that prompted lawsuits, with proposed changes that would reduce allowed housing density in some districts and require off-street parking for new apartment and townhome buildings. There’s also new zoning for vape and tobacco shops, and a new category being added to the zoning code for data centers. So tonight is a long agenda.

Second one. Cardinal News had a story this week on why it’s taking so long to get a building permit in the city of Roanoke. The short answer, the planning, building and development department is about 20 positions short. That’s roughly one-third of its total staff, according to a public records request from late April. The vacancies are everything from city planners to code inspectors to plan examiners.

To make it concrete. Cardinal talked to Nathan Wheat, who owns Roanoke Homes and Renovations. He built 12 houses in the city last year. So far in 2026, he’s built two. He told Cardinal he recently got a permit eight months after he submitted it, for a duplex in Northeast Roanoke. He said in Roanoke County, Salem, or Botetourt, the same permit would come back in one to two weeks.

Leadership has been part of it. The longtime planning director, Chris Chittum, left last year. His replacement left in March. The mayor says an interim director is coming, and the city manager has hired a consultant to assess the department. Citywide, by the way, Roanoke had 201 vacancies across all departments as of late March.

Morgan: Which connects right back to that 19 million dollar deficit, and to Evans Spring, and to housing supply in the city in general.

Alex: It does. It’s the same thread.

Third one is going to land on your gas bill. Columbia Gas of Virginia has filed with the State Corporation Commission for an 11 percent rate increase, starting in October. Per the Roanoke Times, that’s followed by another 3 percent increase a year later. The company serves 290,000 customers in Virginia, including Roanoke-area homes.

What does that mean for you? For a typical residential customer, about 10 dollars and 81 cents more a month starting in October. Then another three dollars on top of that in October of 2027.

Morgan: And the SCC could trim that, right?

Alex: They could. Columbia would charge the higher rate on an interim basis starting in October, and if the commission approves something smaller, customers get a refund. That’s actually what happened last year. Columbia asked for almost 12 percent, the commission approved a little over 8, and refunds went out. The company says the money is needed for pipe replacement and distribution upgrades.

Last one, Morgan, this is yours.

Morgan: All right, this is a good one. After about 30 years of planning, the final piece of the Roanoke River Greenway opened last week at Explore Park.

WSLS reported the East Roanoke River segment is now complete. It connects from the former regional landfill area off Rutrough Road, through Explore Park, all the way out to Rutrough Point. Four separate construction phases got built between 2023 and 2025, and together they make one continuous route along the river.

The idea actually goes back to 1995. That’s when long-term planning first identified the Roanoke River corridor for greenway development. Megan Cronise with Roanoke County told WSLS that the four pieces, quote, “all combined, they’re continuous.” Pulling this off took the county, the state, the National Park Service through the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, and the Valley Greenway Commission all rowing in the same direction.

Alex: Thirty years.

Morgan: Thirty years. And just in time for hiking season.

Alex: That’s the news. Let’s talk about the week ahead.

The Week Ahead: Events

Morgan: All right. It’s a Memorial Day weekend, so the back half of the week is where the action is. But we’ve got some good stuff midweek too.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Dark Star Orchestra is at Elmwood Park. They’re the long-running Grateful Dead tribute band, and the show is free and outdoors. If the weather holds, that is a really nice way to spend a May evening downtown. Also Tuesday, the Roanoke Valley Community Band has a Virginia 250 themed concert.

Wednesday adds a couple more options. Cardinal News is doing another 250 Trivia Night at Twisted Track Brewpub, which is a fun midweek hang. The Ride of Silence is also Wednesday. That’s the annual cycling ride that honors cyclists who’ve been killed or injured on the road. It’s a quiet ride, no talking. And if country music is more your thing, Sunny Sweeney is playing The Spot on Kirk that night.

Alex: Ride of Silence is a good tradition.

Morgan: It is. Thursday is quiet. Take a breath.

Friday, Lou Gramm is in town. The former Foreigner frontman, downtown, bigger touring show.

And then the weekend opens up. Saturday and Sunday is Festival in the Park at Elmwood. Outdoor music, arts, crafts, and a big kids’ area. Two full days. Also Saturday, the Keystone Community Center is doing their 5K.

Sunday wraps up Festival in the Park, and then in the evening, Century Plaza has The Urban Cookout, which is being billed as the Memorial Day Cookout. DJ, band, food, runs from 2 to 8.

Alex: And then Monday is the actual day.

Morgan: Right. Monday is Memorial Day. The big one in the region is the Vinton Memorial Day Parade. This is the 44th year of it. Park Avenue is the parade route. There’s a 3K fun run in the morning, a ceremony at the Veterans Memorial, and then in the afternoon, food trucks, vendors, kids’ rides, and the parade itself. We’ll have updated times on our site as Vinton posts them.

Also Monday, the Salem VA Medical Center holds their annual ceremony in the auditorium on Roanoke Boulevard. Color guard, wreath-laying, 21-gun salute. Brief, dignified, and open to the public.

And one general note, because it’s that time of year. The community pools open. Fallon Park, Washington Park, and the county and Salem pools all start their season around Memorial Day. So if you’ve got kids and you’ve been counting down, this is the week.

Alex: Pool season. That’s a turning point in the year.

Morgan: It really is. If you only do one thing this week, the Vinton Memorial Day Parade on Monday is a good pick. It’s the 44th year, it’s a real Memorial Day observance on Memorial Day, in a part of the country that has a lot of veterans. If you’d rather a non-Memorial-Day option, Festival in the Park on Saturday is right there.

Back to you, Alex.

The Closer: Moon Dirt and Middle Schoolers

Alex: Thanks, Morgan. Closing out the week with what I think is the best story in our notes this week.

Twenty-seven students at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Franklin County entered something called the Plant the Moon Challenge. It’s a NASA-affiliated competition where teams get a box of simulated lunar soil, called regolith, and they have to figure out the best conditions for growing plants in it. Real research, real data, real submissions to NASA.

This is Benjamin Franklin Middle’s first year competing. Most of the other schools have been doing this for five years. The coach, Jennifer Hatch, is not a science teacher. She told WDBJ7, quote, “I just thought we’d enjoy and have fun doing the process.”

Two of their teams, The Mean Greens and the MoonShrooms, were named Overall Best in Show middle school teams for Virginia. The Mean Greens then went on to win Best in Show middle school internationally. First year out.

Morgan: Wait, wait. They grew plants in moon dirt, and they beat schools that had been doing this for five years, on their first try?

Alex: First try.

Morgan: That’s a perfect Monday story.

Alex: Per WDBJ7, the team captain, an eighth grader named Austin Fletcher, said, quote, “I didn’t think we were going to win anything at all, honestly.” His teammate Silas Gibson said when the actual research box showed up, they were jumping out of their seats. They’re heading to Richmond to receive the awards.

Morgan: Moon dirt, in Rocky Mount, winning international awards. I love that.

Alex: Me too.

Close

Alex: That’s the week. Thanks for spending some of your Monday with us.

Morgan: If this was useful, share it with somebody else in the valley. We’re trying to make local news a little easier to keep up with.

Alex: I’m Alex.

Morgan: And I’m Morgan.

Alex: We’ll see you next Monday.