Last of the Buyouts-Now on to Final Demolitions

The City of Vinton just closed on the last three buy-out properties from the 2008 flood. We are excited about moving forward and the possibilities that will come from making much of this space into park areas - especially the lots down by the river. We already have a pavilion that was converted from a residential garage. That area and the Community Gardens area will have a dedication ceremony Tuesday afternoon. We have 15 house that still need to be demolished. There have been some "bumps in the road" with federal regulations dealing with asbestos disposal, but we are getting those smoothed out. Once the asbestos is removed, we can then move on to demolition. The demolition of the remaining houses should be started in September.

Welcoming New Residents and 10th Street Work Begins

I am about to go to the Ray House, which is one of our historic homes in Vinton, to meet some new medical professionals here in Vinton: a new dentist, a medical doctor, and a chiropractor intern. It's good to see that a small town like Vinton would have something to attract young professionals. It adds new blood to the community. Vinton has a lot to offer from our parks and aquatic center to our local theater where you can see 3-D movies for only $3 each.

The picture above shows the beginning of work on 10th Street. The construction was supposed to start on July 1, but there was some delay due to rain. Now most of the rain has managed to miss Vinton, so they have begun to remove the old street and replace the two sewer manholes. Next, they will install a subdrain that will take all the water from under the new street and funnel it to the storm sewer on 8th Street.

Accomplishments

There were a couple of things that happened this week that say a lot about the people in Vinton. When they say they are going to do something, they do it. First, we had a grand opening for a new hotel. In addition to the privately built hotel, the city built a street extension to provide access to the hotel. We knew this type of development was going to be good for the city - we said we were going to do it, and it got done. The hotel has now been open for more than a week and has been about half-full during the week, which is good news.

The second thing that happened was that the Palace Movie Theater installed a new digital movie system. This is a huge step. The group of people who run the theater decided they wanted to do this despite the huge cost. They knew that the people of Vinton would realize the huge benefit it would be and would rally with donations to pay for the system. The citizens of Vinton did. Last night, the Palace Theater showed Shrek 4 for its first digital 3D movie. Better yet, the 3D tickets are being kept at a low $3 per person cost!