Published: August 23, 2007 09:28 pm            

Tazewell County students sweat out first day back

BLUEFIELD, Va. — As the mercury soared to a sweltering 93 degrees, returning students in Tazewell County were faced with muggy classrooms Thursday.

“It’s going pretty good, and the students seem pretty excited,” Graham High School Principal John O’Neal said. “I guess the only downside is dealing with the heat. Everybody is just kind of hanging in there and trying to deal with it as much as possible. We’ve got a lot of fans going.”

O’Neal said the upstairs classrooms at GHS were “extremely hot,” and the downstairs classrooms were “tolerable.” Construction is still ongoing on the school’s new heating and air-conditioning system. Despite the heat, O’Neal said many students were busy Thursday preparing for today’s big Graham-Beaver contest.

“There is nothing like starting the school year out with a big ball game,” O’Neal said.

Classrooms also were muggy at Richlands High School Thursday, Principal Karen Webb said.

“That is something we have to deal with,” Webb said. “The only air-conditioned area we have is the computer labs. We have a lot of fans on.”

Webb said students were nevertheless excited, and eagerly anticipating today’s contest with Gate City. Richlands High School — the defending state champions of the Group AA Division 3 — will play their first home game tonight. Webb said today will be a “blue and white day” at RHS in recognition and support of the hometown state champion Blue Tornado team.

Today will be another early dismissal day, and if the heat wave doesn’t break, school may be dismissed again early on Monday, Tazewell County School Superintendent Dr. Brenda Lawson said — adding an official announcement would be made later today if a decision is made to continue the early dismissal schedule.

“With the exception of it being extremely warm in some of our buildings, the children seem to be excited to be back,” Lawson said. “The teachers and administrative staff and custodians have done a wonderful job preparing for the return of students. I know it’s hot. I’ve been out there with them. But we certainly are going to do all we can during this heat wave to make the learning environment as conducive to the safety and well being of our students as possible. If we have to dismiss early, we are going to do that. We’ve encouraged the parents to feel comfortable sending their children to school with bottled water.”

Lawson said preliminary numbers Thursday suggested the school system was down about 170 students from the end of last year. She hopes to see a slight increase after Labor Day.

The mercury at the Mercer County Airport soared to a high of 93 degrees Thursday — meaning today will be the 11th time free lemonade is served in Bluefield and Bluefield, Va. this summer — and the 190th time since 1939. Residents can get their free lemonade today starting at 11:30 a.m. at Chicory Square, Graham Square, Goodykoontz on Bland Street, Kroger on Cumberland Road and Wal-Mart in Bluefield, Va.

The heat wave is expected to continue through the weekend. The National Weather Service is calling for highs of 92 degrees today and 91 on Saturday. Temperatures could fall slightly to 85 degrees on Sunday.

“We appreciate what the chamber does,” Bluefield Mayor Linda Whalen said of the city’s timeworn campaign of giving away free lemonade when the mercury reaches 90. “We love the recognition this gives Bluefield. When I was at Myrtle Beach in July, we were on the 11 p.m. news showing our Lemonade Lassies giving out lemonade. We just appreciate all the chamber does to promote Bluefield.”

With the Lemonade Lassies back in school, the chamber is now looking elsewhere to find volunteers to help serve the sweet elixir, Debbie Maynard, executive vice president of the chamber, said.

“I think we are on the verge of the 1988 year where we served it 17 times,” Maynard said. “Even though we are making national news, we are running into the school season for the volunteers. So we will now have to take a different approach. We have talked to Valley College (in Princeton) and they have agreed to provide us with some volunteers. I think we owe all of this to Eddie Steele, who was the creator of the Nature’s Air-conditioned City (campaign), and it really involves the whole city. It just continues to be a tradition. I think this year we’ve drawn as much attention as we did in 1991 when we did the 50th anniversary.”

Maynard said the chamber wishes to thank all of the volunteers who have been sweating it out now for 11 days serving free lemonade in the heat, as well as Kwik Cafe, which provides the free lemonade to the city.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

        

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