Chuck Vipperman

1 week ago | chathamstartribune.com | Chuck Vipperman

Danville Police say a convenience store clerk was shot and killed Thursday afternoon. The call came in at 12:41pm from the Airport Mart Exxon on Route 58 across from Danville Regional Airport. Police found 47-year old Pinkin Patel, who is associated with the store, in the parking lot suffering from gunshot wounds. Officers and EMS personnel provided first aid and took Patel to SOVAH Danville where he was later pronounced dead.

1 week ago | chathamstartribune.com | Chuck Vipperman

The fight over a proposed data center campus in the Chalk Level community is over, and the property in question will remain agricultural for the time being. Balico, LLC announced Monday in a press release that they had withdrawn their rezoning request for 750 acres on Chalk Level Road. Tuesday night, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors rejected the request to withdraw. Then, after a two-hour long public hearing, the Board voted 6-1 to deny the request.

1 week ago | chathamstartribune.com | Chuck Vipperman

A Lynchburg man was convicted in a two-day Pittsylvania County murder trial. A Circuit Court jury in Chatham on Friday returned guilty verdicts against 33-year-old Corderro Montez Rucker. He shot and killed Jonathan Robertson of Pittsville. It happened last April at an Airbnb rental on Falcon Ridge Drive in the Leesville Lake area. Before deputies arrived, Robertson was taken by private vehicle to the Centra Emergency Room in Gretna. Robertson later died from gunshot wounds.

2 weeks ago | chathamstartribune.com | Chuck Vipperman

A planning report to the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors concludes that a data center project in the Chalk Level area would not violate the county’s Comprehensive Plan. That report is part of the information packet of the Supervisor’s meeting this week, where they will vote on a rezoning request by Balico. That public hearing was originally scheduled for February but was moved to March. That March hearing was also delayed at Balico's request.

2 weeks ago | chathamstartribune.com | Chuck Vipperman

Federal investigators have released a preliminary report on last month’s fatal helicopter crash in Pittsylvania County. The report released Thursday by the Federal Transportation Safety Board focuses on what led up to the crash of a Robinson R44 helicopter, piloted by 72-year-old Paul D. Jackson of Chase City. An NTSB investigator reports Jackson had completed a sightseeing flight thirty minutes earlier and dropped off two passengers at their home.