Staunton News Leader - 05/03/2016 Page : A03

Copyright © 2016 Staunton News Leader 05/03/2016May 3, 2016 9:06 am (GMT +4:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

Copy Reduced to 76% from original to fit letter page

T U E S D AY , M AY 3 , 2 0 1 6 • T H E N E W S L E A D E R • W W W . N E W S L E A D E R . C O M PA G E 3 , S E C T I O N A

LOCAL&STATE

NEWS DIRECTOR: WILLIAM RAMSEY, WRAMSEY@NEWSLEADER.COM, @WMRAMSEY ON TWITTER

STAUNTON - An Augusta Countyschool bus driver was found not guilty ofreckless driving for a Fishersville crashback in February.

According to Augusta County Com-monwealth’s Attorney Tim Martin, Rox-anne M. Rohrbaugh, 42, of Crimora, wentto trial April 26 and the judge found hernot guilty on the charges.

Rohrbaugh was originally chargedwith the misdemeanor after crashingher Augusta County school bus 83 into aditch off Long Meadow Road in Febru-ary. The crash sent 14 children to the hos-pital.

There were a total of 34 middle andhigh school students, plus the Rohr-baugh, on the bus during the incident.

According to Assistant AugustaCounty Commonwealth’s Attorney Lor-na Port, Rohrbaugh testified that a vehi-cle traveling in the opposite directionhad entered her lane, forcing her toavoid colliding by moving to her rightwhere she left the roadway and struckuneven ground.

“In light of that testimony, the judgedeclined to find her guilty of drivingrecklessly,” Port said.

Jill Martin, director of personnel forAugusta County Schools, said she wasunable to comment on Rohrbaugh’s posi-tion.

“We are evaluating the circum-stances and will adhere to all AugustaCounty School policies and proceduresas we continue to assess the situation,”Martin said.

Bus driver found not guilty for wreck LAURA PETERSLPETERS@NEWSLEADER.COM

RANDALL K. WOLF/THE NEWS LEADER

Emergencyresponderswork afteran AugustaCountySchoolDistrictschool buswrecked onWednesday,Feb. 10. Thebus driverhas beenfound notguilty ofrecklessdriving inaccordancewith thecrash.

NATURAL BRIDGE - “Foamhenge,” a life-sized plasticfoam replica of England’s famous Stonehenge monument, hasmade appearances in TV shows and attracted curious visitorsfrom around the world.

Now, more than a decade after it was installed in Rock-bridge County as an April Fool’s Day stunt, Foamhenge needs anew home.

Artist Mark Cline must move the monument before Aug. 1because it sits on property that will become part of the newNatural Bridge State Park, news outlets reported.

Foamhenge, a replica of the configuration of huge, upright

stones in Wiltshire, England, has served as a local tourist land-mark since it was unveiled 12 years ago.

Cline built the free attraction to entice travelers off the roadand, having initially expected Foamhenge’s lure to wane withinits debut year, he said he has been pleasantly surprised by itsenduring popularity.

“The only reason I hate to move it is because I feel like itdoes so much good for tourism here,” Cline told the RichmondTimes-Dispatch. “It’s been on the BBC and the DiscoveryChannel, been in several books. It was on ‘NCIS’ last year, and itappeared as an answer on ‘Jeopardy!’ the year before. It’s be-come quite a foam-nomenon, so to speak.”

Cline is offering to give the replica to whoever wants it — aslong as the owner is ready to pay for shipping and repair costs,and is willing to withstand a constant flow of visitors.

“It’s free to the right home,” he told The Roanoke Times.“But I’d like to have some say in what the right home will be.”

‘FOAM-NOMENON’

BOB BROWN / RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH VIA AP

Mark Cline stands before "Foamhenge", his full-sized foam and fiberglass recreation of Stonehenge, located on Rt. 11 near Natural Bridge onTuesday, April 26. Foamhenge sits on property that will become part of the new Natural Bridge State Park and must be moved by August 1.

FOAMHENGE TOF IN D NEW HOMEPlastic replica of Stonehenge must be

relocated after more than a decade

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WAYNESBORO - According toWaynesboro City Registrar Lisa Jef-fers, Waynesboro School Board can-didate Chanda McGuffin has droppedout of the race.

Jeffers got officialnotice a few weeksago, she said. McGuf-fin was vying for theat-large spot on theboard.

Voters will be noti-fied at their pollingplaces that McGuffin'sname is still on the bal-

lot. She did not pull official notice ofdropping out in time for her name tobe removed from the ballot, Jefferssaid.

Those voting will see McGuffin'sname on the ballot, but she is no long-er in the race.

WAYNESBORO

McGuffindrops outof schoolboard raceLAURA PETERSLPETERS@NEWSLEADER.COM

McGuffin

Staunton and Waynesboro will behitting the polls come Tuesday.

Both Staunton and Waynesborowill be voting for city council andschool board members.

Here at The News Leader, wewould like to provide you with somesimple tools to be a part of the conver-sation on Election Day.

Show us your voter selfies using ei-ther Facebook, Twitter or Instagramand the hashtag #VoterSelfie.

We’ll be rolling a live stream of re-sults Tuesday night in Waynesboroand Staunton. If you are out and aboutdoing election stuff use the hashtag#ValleyVotes.

By using hashtags, we can followyou all, which keeps us in the action.

Get yourelectionhashtagon!LAURA PETERSLPETERS@NEWSLEADER.COM

Candidates

Waynesboro City Council» Elzena Anderson

» John “Sonny” Smith Jr.

» Bruce Allen

» Jerry Campbell

» Nancy Dowdy

» Terry Short

Waynesboro City School Board» Doug Norcross

» Richard Wheeler

» M.S. “Shelly” Laurenzo

» Alexander Stevens

Staunton City Council» Sarah Crenshaw

» Erik Curren

» James Harrington

» John Hartless

» Ophie Kier

» Andrea Oakes

Staunton City School Board» Robert Boyle

» Joel Grogan

» William Lobb

» Kenneth Venable

MONTEREY - A small cidery in High-land County received nods at the GreatLakes International Cider and PerryCompetition last week.

The contest awarded Big Fish CiderCo. a Best-in-Class award, which marksthe first time in the competition’s 11-yearhistory that a Virginia cidery has earnedthat distinction, a release said. The cide-ry received four medals out of the com-petition’s 1,003 entries.

“We are honored to have theseawards,” said Kirk Billingsley, Big Fishcidermaker, in a release. “I didn’t expectthis level of success at our first contest.

“Mother Nature was on our side lastyear with the biggest apple crop in High-land that I have seen in recent history.It’s great to see Highland apples get theattention they deserve,” he added. “I of-ten tell folks apples grown at this eleva-tion, without sprays and fertilizers, arejust better tasting apples, and with ap-ples like we have, you can make some ofthe best cider in the world.”

Big Fish Cider received the followingawards:

» Allegheny Gold, a New World Heri-tage cider, earned the gold medal and

best-in-class.» Crabbottom Pippin, a New World

Heritage cider, earned a gold medal.» Church Hill Blush, made of High-

land County raspberries from ChurchHill Produce, earned a silver medal as afruit cider.

» Highland Scrumpy, made of donat-ed apples from landowners across High-land, earned a bronze medal.

Starting May 6 Big Fish Cider willstart holding regular hours, opening Fri-day, Saturday and Sunday afternoonsthroughout the summer. For informationsee go to bigfishcider.com.

The competition is sponsored by TheGreat Lakes Cider and Perry Associa-tion, a nonprofit organization formed toshowcase and promote fermented appleand pear beverages.

Cidery in Monterey wins awardsLAURA PETERSLPETERS@NEWSLEADER.COM

SUBMITTED/BIG FISH CIDER CO.

Owner Kirk Billingsley and his wife, Kim, spent years renovating the former Maple Restaurantinto offices, plus operations for Big Fish Cider Co., where cider is made and bottled on-site.