Here’s a roundup of news briefs from around the Southwest and Southside. Send an email to news@cardinalnews.org.
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The community fossil unpacking party is back at Virginia Tech
The Virginia Tech Paleontology Research Group brings back the annual fossil unpacking party at the Earth Science Museum in Delling Hall after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Open to all campus and community members, the event will be held on Tuesdays at 7:00 pm at 2062 Derring Hall and hosted by Assistant Professor Michelle Stocker and Associate Professor Sterling Nesbitt.
The event will feature the unpacking of fossils unearthed in Arizona and Texas last summer.
Children aged 7 and over can participate in unpacking when accompanied by an adult. Please register in advance. Please email mogs@vt.edu with your name, contact information, number of people and ages of children.
The evening begins with presentations at 130 Hahn Hall North by Stocker, Nesbitt, and Earth Science students before moving on to the museum at Delling Hall.
Over the past few years, unpacking parties have brought in more than 150 people, Stocker said. added.
The team found mostly reptile, amphibian and fish fossils. In Arizona, the team focused on rocks in and around Petrified Forest National Park, working with park scientists to unearth bone layers. In Texas, Stocker said, with many Upper Triassic rocks exposed, the team focused on rocks near the town of Post.
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SML Center Collaborates with Virginia Tech Students on Business Development Plan
The Smith Mountain Lake Center will work with Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business administration to develop a business plan for the center.
The student project was proposed by Greg Beecher, Tech’s director of talent development and member of the center’s board of directors.
Beecher chairs the center’s Board of Education. This non-profit organization is working to purchase an empty Grand Home Furnishing Showroom in Westlake Corner and transform it into a multi-purpose facility for educational, entertainment, community and tourism events. He said he reached out to his colleague Dirk Buengel, an associate professor at Pamplin University, to see if his students could help develop plans to use the center.
Buengel will serve as a project advisor to a team of 4-5 management students. They will work to define the optimal use of the new venue to serve a diverse audience, from elementary school students to the elderly, he said.
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Pittsylvania County Receives $2.4 Million Grant to Upgrade Pumping Stations and Improve Infrastructure
Pittsylvania County received a $2.4 million grant from the US Department of Commerce to upgrade the county’s water and wastewater infrastructure, the county announced last week.
The grant will be used to improve five aging pump stations, replace a deteriorating Brockway pump station with gravity sewer service, and complete several smaller water infrastructure projects, the county said. says.
Grants from the Office of Economic Development are part of the agency’s American Relief Plan Economic Adjustment Assistance Program. Pittsylvania County is donating his $600,000 to these projects.
Pittsylvania County Public Works provides water service to over 3,500 customers and sewer service to approximately 2,000 homes and businesses.
