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Good morning, Blacksburg.
Enjoy today: sunshine and a high of 82, the warmest day of Homecoming week by a mile. It is also a big night for local government. Blacksburg Town Council meets at 6:30pm, and at 7:15pm the county Board of Supervisors votes on the Fotheringay rezoning in Elliston, the biggest development decision the county has faced this year.
In today's Blacksburg Connect:
🏛️ Supervisors vote tonight on 349 homes at Fotheringay
🎭 "Ten Thousand Hours" brings world-class acrobats to the Moss tonight
🏈 Homecoming parade Friday, sold-out Georgia Tech game Saturday
Let’s get to it.
Tuesday, October 13
Sustainable Dining Fall Harvest Festival
11am-2pm, Dietrick Lawn, Virginia Tech. A Homecoming week celebration of local food and campus sustainability. Free, rain or shine.
Y Empty Bowls
5:30-8pm, VT YMCA, 1000 N Main St, Blacksburg. The 4th annual hunger-relief fundraiser: food, live music, and art, and you take home a handcrafted bowl as a reminder of the empty bowls in our community.
Blacksburg Town Council regular meeting
6:30pm, Blacksburg Municipal Building Chambers, 300 S Main St, Blacksburg. The first regular meeting of the month is the town's public hearing meeting.
Cassell Countdown Spirit Rally
7-8pm, Quillen Spirit Plaza, Virginia Tech. A Homecoming spirit rally with the men's and women's basketball and wrestling teams. No registration needed.
Gravity & Other Myths: "Ten Thousand Hours"
7:30pm, Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, Moss Arts Center, 190 Alumni Mall, Blacksburg. Eight world-class acrobats and a live percussionist from the acclaimed Australian contemporary circus company. Tickets $30-75, $10 for students and youth 18 and under. About 60 minutes, no intermission; the performance includes haze effects. (dance)
Clarinet Studio Recital
7:30pm, Creativity and Innovation District, Virginia Tech. A free evening recital from the clarinet studio. (classical)
Trivia Night @ 540 Social
7:30-9pm, 125 N Main St, Blacksburg. The weekly Tuesday trivia night: free to play, with prizes and game cards for round winners.
Montgomery County Board of Supervisors regular meeting
7:15pm (closed session at 6pm), Montgomery County Government Center, 755 Roanoke St, Christiansburg. Public hearings tonight include the Fotheringay rezoning vote (see the highlight below) and a proposed ordinance raising the income and net-worth limits for elderly and disabled tax relief.
Wednesday, October 14
Homecoming Blood Drive
11am-5pm, Owens Hall Ballroom, Virginia Tech. An American Red Cross blood drive for Homecoming week; appointments are required to donate.
Grand Opening for The Local
Ribbon cutting at 11am, 414 N Main St, downtown Blacksburg. The town-owned building opens as a retail incubator, community space, and visitors center, with Moon Hollow Coffee pouring daily. Grand opening festivities run 11am-6pm daily through Saturday, Oct 17.
Virginia Tech Board of Visitors special meeting
1pm, CLMS Building, Room 151, 355 Old Turner St, Blacksburg. The board votes on a resolution to appoint Virginia Tech's 17th president. The open session is livestreamed; there is no public comment period.
Blacksburg Farmers Market: Wednesday Market
2-6pm, Market Square Park, 108 W Roanoke St, Blacksburg. The producer-only weekly market, all vendors within 50 miles.
Aux Cord Wars
7pm (doors 6:30pm), Haymarket Theater, Virginia Tech. A Black Student Alliance Homecoming event: students perform their favorite songs, with a surprise guest artist.
Haunted History Tour
7:30pm, starts at 204 Draper Rd SW, Blacksburg. A 60 to 90 minute ghost-history walk through five downtown locations.
Thursday, October 15
Christiansburg Farmers Market
3-7pm, Huckleberry Park, 300 Huckleberry Park Dr NW, Christiansburg. The weekly Thursday market with local produce, vendors, and food trucks.
Sinkland Farms 35th Annual Pumpkin Festival
4-8pm, 3060 Riner Rd, Christiansburg. The festival's Thursday evening edition: hayrides, the 5-acre corn maze, Kids Zone, Terrace Bar, and food trucks. Thursday admission is $15.
Public history talk: "Navigating the Jagged Frontier in the 19th Century and What It Teaches Us Today"
5:30-6:30pm, Alexander Black House, 204 Draper Rd SW, Blacksburg. Historian B. Scott Crawford speaks as part of the Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation's programming.
Broom Workshop with Gabriella the Garden Sage
6-7:30pm, Historic Smithfield Pavilion, 1000 Merry Oak Way, Blacksburg. Craft a broom from dried flowers, grasses, and herbs. $55.
Surrender Dorothy at The Farmhouse
6-9pm, 285 Ridinger St, Christiansburg. A Southwest Virginia band playing classic rock, funk, and soul. (rock)
🏛️ Fotheringay vote tonight
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors holds a public hearing and vote tonight at 7:15pm on one of the largest residential rezonings in county history. Stateson Homes, on behalf of Fotheringay, LLC, is asking the county to rezone about 263.5 acres at the historic Fotheringay property in Elliston, along Roanoke Road near Eastern Montgomery Elementary School, from Agricultural (A-1) to Planned Unit Development-Residential. With proffered conditions, the change would allow a mixed residential development of up to 349 homes, single-family detached houses and townhomes, at a density of about 1.43 units per acre. The county Planning Commission voted in September to recommend approval and send the request to the supervisors.
The Blue Ridge Land Conservancy has formally opposed the rezoning, citing the loss of farmland and the county's new comprehensive plan. The rezoning is the third of three public hearings tonight, after the elderly and disabled tax relief ordinance and a special use permit for Techy Athletics, with the board's action items following under New Business. The hearing is at the Montgomery County Government Center, 755 Roanoke St, Christiansburg. The board's regular meeting was moved to Tuesday because Monday was a county holiday. The application, plans, and public comments filed before and after the Planning Commission hearing are posted on the county's pending applications page. County agenda | County hearing notice | Pending applications | Blue Ridge Land Conservancy | News Messenger
🎭 "Ten Thousand Hours" at the Moss tonight
What does 10,000 hours of practice look like? Gravity & Other Myths, the Australian contemporary circus company, answers that question on stage tonight at the Moss Arts Center. In "Ten Thousand Hours," eight world-class acrobats perform lifts, balances, and daring flights alongside a live percussionist, set to a driving score, turning the unseen labor behind extraordinary skill into the show itself: the trust, repetition, and relentless practice it takes to master something. Tonight's show is at 7:30pm in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, running about 60 minutes with no intermission.
Tickets are $30-75, $10 for students and youth 18 and under, at the box office or by phone at 540-231-5300. The company is also playing a free school-day matinee for 1,000 students and educators from eight counties, and community members receive a pre-show meal and complimentary tickets through the Center for the Arts Community VIP Ticket Program with New River Community Action. Virginia Tech News | Moss Arts Center
🏈 Homecoming weekend: parade Friday, game Saturday
The 100th Homecoming week builds to the weekend. The annual Homecoming Parade marches through downtown Blacksburg Friday at 6:45pm and ends on Alumni Mall; the official Parade Watch Party on Alumni Mall (6-8pm) is already sold out, so plan to line Main Street instead. Saturday starts with the Homecoming Tailgate on the Drillfield, 11:30am-2:30pm ($15 in advance, $20 the day of, free for kids 12 and under), ahead of the sold-out Maroon Effect game against Georgia Tech at 3:30pm. The Yellow Jackets arrive off a 28-25 win over No. 23 Duke. One warning: after highs of 82 and 84 on Tuesday and Wednesday, Saturday tops out at 54. Dress for a different season than the one you tailgate in. Virginia Tech News | Homecoming Tailgate
📰 News Around the NRV
🏛️ Tax relief hearing tonight. Also on the supervisors' agenda tonight: a public hearing on a proposed ordinance that would raise the income and net-worth limits for the county's tax exemption and deferral program for elderly and disabled residents. Staff first presented the proposed increases on Aug 24, and the board directed staff to draft the ordinance and schedule tonight's hearing. County agenda packet
🏛️ Christiansburg council acted on the Arrowhead Sewer project last month. At its Sept 22 meeting, the council held a public hearing on FY 2026-27 Budget Amendment #1, appropriating $1,535,785 in unspent funds for the Arrowhead Sewer project; a hearing was required because the amount exceeds 1% of the approved budget. Town agenda
🎓 Montgomery County School Board meets next Tuesday. The board's next regular meeting is Tuesday, Oct 20 at 7pm at the Operations Center, 208 College St, Christiansburg. Agendas are posted the Friday before the meeting. MCPS School Board
🏞️ Christiansburg is working on selling part of Huckleberry Park. The town plans to sell two parcels totaling just over five acres at the front of Huckleberry Park, off Peppers Ferry Road, for an undisclosed commercial development. The buyer and terms are still being negotiated, and Town Council has set an Oct 27 public hearing on the sale. The 50 to 60 acre park opened in 2023 and hosts the Thursday farmers market listed above. Cardinal News
🏭 A $750 million Commerce Park deal, including a possible data center, has fallen through. Developer New River Valley LLC missed the Oct 5 closing deadline for the 475-acre New River Valley Commerce Park in Pulaski County, and the contract expired, according to the regional authority's executive director. No replacement developer has been identified, and the authority planned a public meeting on data centers in Dublin. Cardinal News
🏛️ Radford is still waiting on the state. Seven months after Radford was designated in fiscal distress, city officials say they have no clear timeline for state assistance. The city says it has moved ahead on its own with new financial leadership, rate and tax increases to balance the budget, and a forensic audit. Cardinal News
🌧️ Thursday turns wet. Showers are likely Thursday (70% chance) before a sharp cooldown: Friday and the weekend run much colder, with Saturday's Homecoming high at 54 and a low of 33. weather.com
📌 Community Board
🗳️ Early voting is open. In-person early voting runs weekdays 9am-5pm at the Montgomery County Office of Elections, 1546 N Franklin St, Christiansburg, through Oct 31. Sunday hours are Oct 18 and 25, 11am-4pm, and Saturday hours are Oct 24 and 31, 9am-5pm. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov 3. Office of Elections
🎲 NRV Party Games social night, Thu Oct 15. 6:30-8:30pm at NRV SuperBowl in Christiansburg; bowling is $4.03 or just come to socialize for free. FB post
🎣 Tony Huddleston Trout Rodeo, Sun Oct 18. Izaak Walton Park, Christiansburg; check-in noon-2pm, tournament 2-4pm, kids ages 4-15. FB event
🎨 Craft & Vendor Event at Uptown Christiansburg, Sat Oct 17. 10am-5pm at Uptown Christiansburg. FB post
🧺 Fall In Love With Missions yardsale and craft show, Sat Oct 17. 8am-3pm, 1861 Mud Pike Rd, Christiansburg. FB event
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