The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - 20

THE GIST
First-Ever Greenway Coordinator Retires
written by Aila Boyd Liz Belcher retires, celebrates success of our popular greenway network.
A
fter guiding the direction of
the Roanoke Valley Greenway
network for a quarter of a century,
Liz Belcher retired last month.
Her tenure as the greenway
coordinator dates back to 1996 when the
greenway effort was part of the Fifth District
Planning Commission. The agreement that
established the network stipulated that the
greenways would be owned and operated by
the localities in which they were located. Given
the fact that there were four separate localities
initially involved, someone was needed to
coordinate the effort. That's when Belcher,
who previously worked for the Forest Service,
stepped in.
Belcher remembers that it was difficult to
warm people up to the idea of a greenway
during the network's early days. " People didn't
really know what a greenway was, " she says.
In order to get community buy-in, those
Liz Belcher
Botetourt County.
" The community has taken a lot of
ownership of the greenway, " she cites as one
of her primary accomplishments. " People love
the greenway. They're out there all the time. "
As for the future of the greenway network,
she anticipates it will continue moving full
steam ahead. Specifically, she says, the Roanoke
River Greenway will be completed from Green
Hill Park to Explore Park.
Frank Simms, chair of the Roanoke Valley
Greenway Commission says, " Thanks to Liz
Belcher and many partners, the Roanoke Valley
Greenway system has become a reality. "
Although she is now retired, Belcher
involved worked to establish a presence in all
four localities.
Now, the greenway network stretches over
400 miles throughout five localities, including
the City of Roanoke, Roanoke County,
the City of Salem, the Town of Vinton and
has a full slate of activities planned for the
foreseeable future. She will be traveling to all
of Virginia's state parks and preserves, which
total more than 100.
" I want to discover more of our natural
areas, " she says. I
Roanoke Resident Part of
New Collaborative Album
written by Aila Boyd Dr. Quigg Lawrence records a bluegrass album with local
and Grammy Award-nominated musicians.
Musical collaborative Bent Mountain
released a 10-song album earlier this year
D
Roanoke resident Quigg Lawrence was
the executive producer for the album
20 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
r. Quigg Lawrence's day job is
a lot of work. As bishop and
senior pastor at Church of the
Holy Spirit on Merriman Road
in Roanoke, he's constantly
meeting with parishioners, preparing new
sermons and guiding the general direction of
the church.
Somehow, he managed to find time over
the past year to record a bluegrass album
with members of the musical collaborative he
established that is called Bent Mountain.
Come Home is the name of the album,
which was released earlier this year. It was
inspired by his mother who was a bluegrass
harmony singer. She was dying of cancer when
he had the idea of doing an album as a tribute
to her. The title refers to the fact that she would
go home to Heaven at the time of her death.
The idea gained steam when it dawned on
him that he had two talented musicians-a
14-year-old banjo player and a nine-yearold
mandolin player-who are part of his
congregation at his disposal. The two brothers,
Ayden and Blane Young, make up The Brothers
Young band.
From there, he reached out to his friend
Junior Sisk, a well-known bluegrass guitarist
and vocalist, to see if he would be willing to
record two singles with the boys. Luckily, he
agreed and they booked recording time at
Mountain Fever Records in Willis.
With the first two songs down, he turned
to his friend Scott Mulvahill, a bassist who
previously worked with Ricky Skaggs, to
produce a full album. After that, it didn't take
TheRoanoker.com
COURTESY OF LIZ BELCHER / COURTESY OF QUIGG LAWRENCE

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The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021

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