Good morning, Blacksburg.

Fun fact to start your Friday before Halloween: Over 35 million pounds - or roughly 9 billion individual kernels - of candy corn are produced in the United States every year. Candy corn has barely changed since the 1800s, but when Goelitz Confectionery (now Jelly Belly) bought the recipe in 1898, it sold the stuff as “Chicken Feed.” Now you know.

Outside, expect a sunny Friday with a high near 72 and a light northwest breeze, then a partly cloudy night with a low around 42. The weekend turns mostly cloudy with highs near 63, and clocks fall back an hour early Sunday. Smithsonian | National Weather Service

In today’s Blacksburg Connect

Let’s get to it.

About 10 people used the citizen comment period at Tuesday night's Blacksburg Town Council meeting to ask the town to end its contract with Flock Safety, the company behind the license plate reader cameras Blacksburg police use around town. The cameras weren't on the agenda, and council took no vote. Speakers read from the Flock contract one of them got through a public records request, described a camera about 100 feet from a home on Harding Avenue, and cited plate misreads in other states. Several pointed to neighbors that have already pulled out: Christiansburg's council voted in August to end its Flock contract, and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office dropped its cameras at the start of October.

Responding from the dais after comments closed, council's presiding member said the town is listening and that council discussed its camera use at a work session in March. Since August, Blacksburg has kept plate data for 7 days instead of the 21 days state law allows, limited searches to violent crimes, missing persons, stolen vehicles and active threats, and stopped automatically sharing data with other agencies except Virginia Tech Police. “This isn't the end of discussion,” he said.

Police Chief John Clair said the department is looking at options “where we own the equipment and where it's not shared with anybody and it's not stored anywhere but here,” and that he expects to find a vendor that meets the community's needs. One council member said the problem is Flock's “for profit corporate surveillance network in the cloud,” and that the town is exploring how to move away from Flock while keeping some plate-reader ability for cases like a missing child or an active shooter.

Also Tuesday, council held its only public hearing, on Resolution 10-D-26, which asks the General Assembly to update the boundary description in the town charter to match a 2025 boundary survey, the first full survey since the 1973 annexation. Staff called it “a relatively administrative change,” no one spoke, and council approved it on a roll-call vote. The Nov 3 work session is canceled for Election Day, and council next meets Nov 10.

meeting video | agenda | town plate reader page | News Messenger | WDBJ | WSLS

Christiansburg Town Council voted 6-0 Tuesday to sell Carilion Clinic two parcels at the front of Huckleberry Park, nearest Peppers Ferry Road, for $5 million, Cardinal News reports. The land adds up to a little over five acres, and Mayor Mike Barber said Carilion plans a medical facility there. Neither the town nor Carilion has said what exactly will be built. “We have no clue,” Barber said, adding that he's comfortable the property will be put to use to benefit residents.

The park opened in 2023 and cost an estimated $18 million. “Our goal all along, since we opened Huckleberry Park in 2023, was to sell one or more parcels of land to offset the cost,” Barber said. Council member Tanya Hockett said $5 million was the listing price. Talks with Carilion began in winter 2025, and council first reviewed the sale agreement in an April 14 closed session before amending it June 9. Carilion's Hannah Curtis said plans haven't been finalized but any future use would aim to expand access to care.

Cardinal News | council agenda

Students in Virginia Tech's livestock merchandising class run the Hokie Harvest Sale tonight at 6:30pm at the Alphin-Stuart Livestock Arena, selling university-owned beef cattle live in the ring and online. Students staff every part of it, from the catalog and advertising to clerking, animal display and the sale ring. Buyer registration runs 3-7pm in the Beef Cattle Barn, with a free barbecue dinner 4:30-6:30pm. Online bidders register on salering.live at least 15 minutes before the sale.

Proceeds go back into School of Animal Sciences programs, and the sale has brought in more than $4.5 million over the course's 31-year history. sale page

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