A2

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2015

SMYTH COUNTY NEWS & MESSENGER

Flag football league planned Cats

From Page A1

BY LINDA BURCHETTE
Staff

Chilhowie Town Council

has given permission for
use of town facilities by an
Upward youth flag football
league being formed.
Fred Conley, assistant
pastor at Chilhowie Baptist Church, appeared before council last week to
request permission and
provide information about
the league.
Conley said in a letter to
the town that he is director of the planned league
to be sponsored by the
church. The league would
like to use Warrior Park
next to the church property and the Chilhowie Little
League baseball park and
concession stand.
Flag football is a noncontact program that will
also include cheerleaders, Conley said, and he
has been advertising and
recruiting from Atkins to
Bristol.
Parents often want their
children to participate in a
football program, he said,
but they are concerned
about injuries and concussions. Flag football offers an alternative to full
contact football, he said,
but teaches skills that can
be taken to full contact
football later on.
The league will provide
football and cheerleading
opportunities for boys and
girls from kindergarten to
sixth grade. Other churches have been invited to
participate. Children will
get life lessons as well as
athletic experience, Conley said.
Upward, Conley said, is a
youth sports program that
serves thousands of communities in the U.S. and
quite a few can be found

in Smyth and surrounding

counties.
Coaches in the league,
said Conley, will be men
from churches who have
had a background check,
which is a requirement in
the town for anyone involved in a youth program
who has one-on-one contact with a child. Cheerleader coaches would be
ladies from the participating churches.
The concession stand
would be directed by one
of the commissioners of
the league with proceeds
to fund the league.
The town asked to be a
secondary on the churchs
liability policy for the program and to be apprised
of the size and strength of
the program.
Player and cheerleader
registrations and evaluations began July 11 and
continue this Saturday,
July18, at the Little League
park.
If we get 50 kids to sign
up then we would be off to
a great start, said Conley.
There were some signups
on Saturday for football
players and cheerleaders
and he anticipates more
this Saturday. Registration will continue through
practice, he said, as there
will be a month before
games start.
Games will be held Sept.
12 through Oct. 21. Practices will take place at
Warrior Park on Tuesdays
and Thursdays beginning
Aug. 11 from 5-8 p.m.
Games and practices will
be moved or suspended
during the Chilhowie Apple Festival and will not
conflict with Little League
games and practices.
For more information,
call the church at 6463011 or go online to www.

99

chilhowiebaptistchurch.
com and click on the Upward Sports icon at the
bottom of the page to go
to the churchs Facebook
page and watch a video of
the first evaluation day.
In other business at
the July 9 meeting, Lynn
Pease, chair of the Friends
of Chilhowie Public Library, said there has been
no word from the SmythBland Regional Library
Board of Trustees concerning budget cuts or the
fate of branch libraries in
Chilhowie and Saltville.
He said he believes the library board is meeting at
the end of July.
John Clark, interim town
manager, sent a letter on
July 7 to Pat Hatfield, executive director of SmythBland Regional Library,
and Tim Havens, chair of
the library board, concerning the library situation.
While the Chilhowie
Town Council has not
taken a formal position
on this issue (rumored
closing of branches due
to county budget cuts),
I feel strongly that they
would [be in] agreement
with me on this issue. My
position on this would be
that any cuts in staffing,
operations, hours, etc. be
saturated over the entire
system and not just be absorbed by only the branch
libraries, particularly the
Chilhowie Branch Library.
I also request that any
changes in the operation
of the Chilhowie Branch
Library, if any, be communicated to me so I can
share it with the town
council.
Clark asked that his letter
be shared with the library

See LEAGUE, Page A7

totaling $48,000, were set

after a June 9 hearing in
which a General District
Court judge awarded the
shelter custody of the
felines, ruling that the cats
hadbeenseverelyneglected
and malnourished.
Criminal charges against
Blevins are still pending.
Turman said after the
June 9 ruling, he and the
Smyth County Humane
Society immediately began working with other
organizations throughout
the state to help find more
permanent homes for the
cats. But those plans came
to an abrupt halt when the
shelter learned Blevins
had filed an appeal the day
before the cats were set to
be released to those organizations.
Once the appeal was
filed we couldnt continue
making arrangements to
place them, Turman said.
At that point all we could
do was continue to care for
them.
By that time, Turman said
shelter staff and humane
society volunteers had become extremely exhausted
and overwhelmed by the
situation. Once it became
clear the felines would
have an extended stay,
the shelter turned to more
unconventional means of
assistance, recruiting the
help of Southwest Virginia
Regional Jail Authority inmates.
Shelter Attendant Sherry
Henderson said the help
the inmates supplied was
an immense relief to shelter staff and volunteers
alike.
We were very glad to see

them, very glad to have the

help, she said.
Turman said shelter staff
and volunteers alike were
pleased with the care the
inmates provided the felines and hope to continue
the work release program
after the felines have all
gone on to other homes or
agencies.
At this point, Turman
said a large number of the
cats have been transported
to organizations, including
the Richmond, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and
Norfolk SPCAs; Homeward
Trails in Fairfax County;
Loudoun County Animal
Services; the Animal Welfare League of Arlington;
and Angels of Assisi in
Roanoke.
Turman said some of
the more feral cats will
be adopted to farmers to
become barn cats, where
they will live out their lives
in the semi-undomesticated settings that they
prefer. Others have found
their forever homes with
community members.
As of yesterday, only 25
of the 109 cats remained
at the shelter. Turman said
the animal shelter and humane society are working
to find placement for those
that remain.
Im glad theyre finally
getting out of here and out
of the cages and being rehomed, Henderson said.
Humane Society Volunteer Amy Mize-Hunt said
she was happy for the felines to be released.
The cats were in a bad
situation, but theyre all
in a much better situation
now. We all watched them
get better. Its remarkable.
This isnt the ideal setting,
but weve watched them
get better and thrive just by

www.swvatoday.com

Jasmine Dent/ For the News & Messenger

Shelter Attendant Sherry

Henderson said some of the
felines were shy at first, but
almost every cat enjoyed the
affection they received while
at the shelter.

having food, water, attention and love every day,

Mize-Hunt said. Its good
to see them find homes
and no longer have to be
in cages all the time.
Turman said, to his
knowledge, the rescue
of the 109 felines from
Blevins Chilhowie residence was the largest in
Smyth County history. He
said after dealing with the
situation he has certainly
had a shift of perspective.
Now that weve dealt
with this we have a better
idea of what we can handle, Turman said. Normal crises wont seem so
bad now.
Due to the large number
of cats being housed at the
shelter, the shelter was not
able to accept additional
cat intakes during their
stay. Now that the situation has come to an end
and the felines are finding new homes, Turman
hopes the shelter will be
able to resume accepting
intakes within the next
week or two.

www.swvatoday.com

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