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Good morning, Blacksburg.

Fun fact to start your Thursday: Americans are expected to spend $920 million on Halloween costumes for their pets this year, according to the National Retail Federation, and the top pick is a pumpkin, followed by a hot dog. Keep an eye out for both at this evening's Howl-o-ween Dog Parade. Outside, expect a mostly sunny Thursday with a high near 71, dipping to around 43 tonight under mostly clear skies. NRF | National Weather Service

In today’s Blacksburg Connect

Let’s get to it.

Thursday, October 29

🛏️ Sleep in Heavenly Peace Volunteer Bed Build @ VTCRC
2:30-6:30pm, picnic pavilion behind 1311 Research Center Drive, Blacksburg. Join the Intuitive Foundation's Blacksburg Chapter and Sleep in Heavenly Peace to build free twin-size beds for children in need in Montgomery, Pulaski and Giles counties. Food is provided for volunteers, and advance registration is encouraged.

🛒 Christiansburg Farmers Market: final market of the year
3-7pm, Huckleberry Park. The weekly Thursday market wraps up its season today.

🎃 Sinkland Farms 35th Annual Pumpkin Festival
4-8pm, 3060 Riner Rd, Christiansburg. Final weekend of the festival: pumpkin patch, corn maze, hayrides, farm animals and food trucks, with live music Saturday and Sunday. Thursday and Friday admission is $15 ($14 seniors, military and first responders, free for children 3 and under); Saturday and Sunday are $20 and $19.

🎃 Radford Halloween Treat Trail
4-6pm, E Main Street, Downtown Radford. Trick-or-treating from E Main Street businesses; businesses off E Main may set up in empty storefronts. Radford Chamber newsletter

🏛️ Blacksburg Flood Resilience Plan public input meeting
5-7pm, Blacksburg Community Center, 725 Patrick Henry Dr. Share your input on the town's Flood Resilience Plan in person; the online public input survey stays open until Nov 6. Let's Talk Blacksburg

🐕 Center for the Barks Howl-o-ween Dog Parade
5:30-6:30pm, Patricia Buckley Moss Lawn. A free outdoor dog parade with a costume contest. Pumpkins and hot dogs encouraged.

🎃 Not-So-Spooky Spooktacular
6-7pm, Christiansburg Library, 125 Sheltman St. Games and goodies for ages 2-17: a candy walk, musical pass the pumpkin, pumpkin tic-tac-toe, and Halloween cookie decorating. Costumes welcome.

⚽ Virginia Tech Women's Soccer vs. Boston College
7pm, Thompson Field. The Hokies close their regular-season home slate after Sunday's 1-1 draw with Clemson, when Gabby Ciocca scored in the 57th minute and Julianna Trujillo made a career-high eight saves. hokiesports

👻 Haunted History Tour
7:30-8:30pm and 9-10pm, starting at 204 Draper Rd SW, Blacksburg. A 60-90 minute walk through historic downtown with a ghostly twist, stopping at the Thomas-Conner House, the old Blacksburg Elementary, the Lyric Theatre, Stroubles Creek near the 5 Chimneys House, and the Alexander Black House. Tours are limited to 15 people, ages 8 and up, and tickets must be bought at least three hours ahead. Tours run again Friday and Saturday.

🏳️‍🌈 Queer HalloweenTown!
From 4pm. A punch-card adventure that ends at the 10pm Rocky Horror screening at the Lyric.

🎬 The Rocky Horror Picture Show at The Lyric Theatre
10pm. Part of the Late Night Horror Series, with the Tolls of Madness shadow cast and a "Tim & Dolly" theme.

🏥 An $18 million freestanding ER planned for Radford

LewisGale Hospital Montgomery, part of HCA Virginia, plans to build an $18 million, 11,000-square-foot freestanding emergency room in Radford, the health system announced Monday. Called Radford ER, it will sit in the Tall Oaks Crossing shopping center and is expected to open in 2028, with 11 emergency treatment bays, a covered ambulance entrance, on-site lab services and advanced diagnostic imaging, and a staff of about 25 clinicians. Patients who need more specialized care will be transferred to the right facility. It will be HCA Virginia's second freestanding ER in the New River Valley, after Christiansburg ER, and part of about $38 million in recently announced emergency care investments that also include a $20 million freestanding ER in Hollins and an additional Air Care Eagle air ambulance based in Danville. Virginia Business

👻 Before the ghost stories: the downtown museum that spent 60+ years as a funeral home

Two stops on tonight's Haunted History Tour sit side by side on Draper Road, and the real history is plenty spooky on its own. Banker and businessman Alexander Black, a descendant of town founder William Black, began building his Queen Anne Victorian in 1896 after a fire destroyed his family's first home. (William Black set aside 38 acres of his land in 1798 to establish the village of Blacksburg.) The Black family lived there until Alexander died in 1935. After a short stint as a boarding home, the house spent more than 60 years as a funeral home, ending when McCoy Funeral Home sold it in 2002.

Town Council voted to buy the house and hired Expert House Movers, to roll it across Draper Road next to the Thomas-Conner House. In 2013 the Black House's exterior was restored to its late-1800s look, and today it's the Blacksburg Museum, open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am-4pm. Blacksburg Museum | Town of Blacksburg | the move | Thomas-Conner marker | Virginia DHR

📰 News around the NRV

  • 🗳️ Early voting ends Saturday. Montgomery County voters can still vote early 9am-5pm today, Friday, and Saturday, Oct 31 (the final day), at the Office of Elections, 1546 N Franklin St, Christiansburg. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov 3. Montgomery County early voting

  • 🚧 VDOT watch. VDOT's Salem District alert for Oct 23-30 lists four Montgomery County projects. Route 460 eastbound slope repairs in Christiansburg between exits 3A and 2 began Monday night, with a right-lane closure 7pm-6am Sunday night through Friday morning and a daytime shoulder closure; VDOT expects the work to finish in the next two to three weeks. The Route 8 widening in Riner brings night single-lane closures with flagging and an intermittent detour via Route 671 (Five Points Road), 10pm-7am, through summer 2028. The $8.3 million Prices Fork Road and Peppers Ferry Road project has closures 9am-3pm and 6pm-7am through late 2027, and the I-81 exit 105 New River Bridge work brings night closures 8pm-6am and a 60 mph zone through summer 2027. VDOT alert

  • 🏛️ Two big hearings Nov 10. The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing Nov 10 at 7:15pm at the Government Center, 755 Roanoke St, on rezoning 263.50 acres of the Fotheringay property near Elliston for 349 homes. It was re-advertised after a 47-acre parcel was left out of the legal ad for the Oct 13 hearing. The same night, the board hears two Black Diamond Resources requests on Peppers Ferry Road near the Pulaski County line: a clean earth fill area over 15,000 cubic yards and a contractor's storage yard. Cardinal News | county notice | Black Diamond request

  • 🌿 Huckleberry heads-up. Virginia Tech is laying mulch over a section of the Campus Trail next to the Huckleberry Trail for Friday's ACC Cross Country Championships, with impacts through Nov 2. VT notice

📌 Community Board

  • 🐱 Feral cat colony food help. A resident who feeds a feral cat colony, and traps the cats to get them fixed, is asking for food donations; they go through a lot of it. post

  • 🦃 Bull & Bones Thanksgiving catering. Orders are due Sat Nov 21, with pickup Wed Nov 25, 12-6pm, at the Blacksburg location. Smoked turkey is $75, combos run $32-45 per person, plus pies and more. post

🎃 Sneak Peek: Halloween weekend, Fri Oct 30 – Sun Nov 1 🎃

🗺️ See Halloween week on the map →

Friday, Oct 30

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Afternoon

Night

Saturday, Oct 31

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Afternoon

Night

Sunday, Nov 1

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