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The Northern Virginia Daily Contact Managing Editor Bob Wooten at 800-296-5137,
[email protected] or fax 465-6152.
Saturday March 14, 2009
Region
SHENANDOAH Proposed school budget calls for cuts B2 FRONT ROYAL Fiscal plan heading to Warren supervisors B3
nvdaily.com
SHENANDOAH COUNTY
Sheriff voices concerns over meth By Preston Knight
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TOP OF THE MORNING By Bob Wooten
Sobering realities of war Christopher N. Lanum died with a smile on his face. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of smile a 25-year-old soldier ought to have after coming home from war, leaving the rigors of combat behind and reuniting with friends and family. Lanum, who died Sunday during a standoff with law enforcement officers along Skyline Drive near Front Royal, had painted his face with the grotesque smile made famous by the late actor Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight.” In the movie, Ledger played Batman’s nemesis, The Joker, a murderous villain with a scarred face, a painted smile and dark spirit. Court records filed by investigators in the wake of Sunday’s deadly shootout say Lanum was obsessed with Ledger’s incarnation of the character. The documents also detail a vicious attack by Lanum and his girlfriend on a fellow soldier earlier in the day at Fort Eustis, a 9,000-acre base in Hampton Roads. Lanum not only slashed the throat of Spc. Mitchell Stone but zapped him repeatedly with a stun gun. Stone survived the attack, after which Lanum and his girlfriend, Patsy Ann Marie Montowski, hit the road in a 1999 Ford minivan. At least part of the time, Montowski was at the wheel while Lanum applied the same make-up to his face he had used at Halloween to channel his favorite character. Almost 200 miles later, police spotted them along Skyline Drive and gave chase. When they reached a roadblock at the Front Royal exit, Lanum drove across a set of spike strips and crashed the van. Brandishing a shotgun at officers, he refused to drop the weapon and the gunfire began. He died at the scene. There was nothing funny about Lanum’s play at being The Joker. After surviving a tour of duty in Iraq, some switch was thrown in his tortured soul that triggered this bizarre chain of events. Days after his shooting, his mother, Tammy Llewellyn, seemed to be at a loss for an explanation. “All I can tell you is that Christopher served 18 months in Iraq and he never came actually home to us,” she said. Lanum’s family buried him Friday in Virginia Beach. The facts surrounding Lanum’s last days are still coming out, but the sad case appears to punctuate a welldocumented problem confronting the military — the mental health needs of troops returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not all of the wounded have scars plain to the naked eye. Many suffer severe mental health issues in making the transition from extended combat tours to life back home. The Department of Veterans Affairs says up to one in five Iraq veterans suffer some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Meanwhile, the Army is struggling to cope with what it says is the highest level of suicide among troops in decades — at least 128 cases in 2008. I’m no mental health professional — and I don’t play one in the movies — but I have to think Christopher Lanum will eventually be counted among these walking wounded coming home from Iraq. Bob Wooten is the managing editor of the Daily. Contact him at 800-296-5137 or at
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Correction A photo published Friday, accompanying a story on the robbery of the 7-Eleven at the intersection of Royal Avenue and Criser Road, was of another Front Royal 7-Eleven. T
WOODSTOCK — One local consequence of the national recession may be a spike in the production and trafficking of illegal methamphetamine in the coming year, Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy C. Carter said. The sheriff recently presented his 2008 annual report to the county’s public safety and code committee. While no increases or decreases in figures from 2007 stand out, Carter said statistics in the coming year in
certain areas could merit special attention because of the recession. Atop his list of concerns is a “disturbing” trend of more people using methamphetamine, he said. In fact, if anything is to be remembered from 2008 in county law enforcement, it is likely breaking up the Carter area’s largest methcooking operation, involving numerous people, maximum purchases of pseudoephedrine from several phar-
macies and theft of anhydrous ammonia to make the drug. The scope of the operation suggests a larger problem, Carter said. “It leads me to believe we have other people involved in cooking in the area,” he said. An increase in use of the drug, known as “poor man’s cocaine,” is likely in the immediate future because of the cheap way it can be created, Carter said. Meth can be made in the back of someone’s car if necessary, he said. “You don’t need a large lab,” Carter said. “If you find one person
who cooks, in many cases, they train others how to cook. You deal with a whole group of people who learn how to cook from one person. That’s disturbing.” Paranoia can come from meth addiction, he added, and users often carry weapons, leading to a propensity for violence. Meth use isn’t the only criminal activity that Carter predicts could increase this year. In the past four months, the county has seen an increase in daytime burglaries, Carter said. The number of fraud METH, B3
Andrew Thayer/Daily
NICE DAY FOR A RIDE From left, David Tavenner of Berryville, Gordanna and Jacky Thompson of Winchester and Brenda McDonald of Berryville ride horses down Allen Road in Clarke County recently.
FREDERICK COUNTY SCHOOLS
Stimulus funding saves sports, jobs By Alex Bridges
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WINCHESTER — Millions of dollars from the federal stimulus means Frederick County Public Schools can save dozens of jobs and keep middle school sports alive. Superintendent Patricia Taylor presented a revised, proposed fiscal 2010 budget to the School Board on Thursday that cuts the Taylor anticipated revenue reduction from about $12 million to $4 million, thanks mainly to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. “Finding $4 million from the current budget is a task that is much easier than finding over $12 million,” Taylor said after the meeting. “However, it still means reductions over the resources that we have today to meet the same requirements that will be there next year.” Specifically, the revised total budget of $159.4 million includes funding for 2,036 full-time positions, compared to $153.4 million and 1,980 positions in the previous version. The new version still falls below the current budget of $164.3 million and 2,115 positions. In addition to restoring positions such as teachers and aides, the money would be used to keep middle school sports alive
— at least partially. Taylor budget as originally proposed cut the athletics program in order to save more than $296,000. The revised version cuts the program budget by $196,000, but the $100,000 left won’t be enough to fully run athletics for the middle schools. A committee of the middle-school principals, athletic directors and two parents from each school is looking at ways to run the program. Also during the budget work session Thursday, member Melvin S. “Jim” Harmon Jr. and Vice Chairman Stuart Wolk asked others on the board and school officials if they should revisit the idea of cutting salaries instead of just freezing pay as recommended in the revised, proposed budget. Officials remained optimistic but warned the added federal revenue won’t last forever. “We are mindful that this financial reprieve is made possible by federal dollars as well as a one-time opportunity provided by the General Assembly to use $1.5 million text-fund dollars differently next year,” Taylor said. The revised proposed operating budget of $131 million includes the restoration of more than 50 jobs slated for reduction under Taylor’s proposal presented to the board in February. The proposed financial plan then called for an operating budget of $123.4 million, which would result in a reduction STIMULUS, B3
Rich Cooley/Daily file
The Strasburg Town Council has agreed to buy property at 216 E. King St., which is next door to the Town Hall, for $160,000.
Strasburg Council agrees to buy property on King Street By Elizabeth Wilkerson
neering and feasibility studies, whether its development plan for the properSTRASBURG — The ty was practical. In JanuTown Council has agreed to ary, Fauber said officials purchase a roughly quarwere considering the site ter-acre piece of property for a possible police station. next to the Town Hall for Councilman Robert Baker $160,000, Town Manager voted against purchasing Kevin Fauber said. the property, Fauber said On Tuesday evening, the Thursday, and Councilman panel spent about an hour Michael Whittle was in closed session before unable to attend Tuesday’s returning to its open meet- meeting. ing and voting 6-1 to purOn Thursday, Fauber said chase the land, located at the property is “part of our 216 E. King St., Fauber vision for … public safety said. There are two buildpurposes.” ings on the 12,000-square“Everything is really prefoot lot — a small, white liminary at this point,” building that residents Fauber said. “[The council] refer to as the “taxi stand” felt like the timing was and a brick building that appropriate to purchase once housed Brill’s Grocery. this property.” The town entered a conOn Thursday, Baker said tract to purchase the land he would “very much like on Dec. 26, and had 60 to have voted in favor of” days from that point to purchasing the land. determine, though engi“I couldn’t justify it, given
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what I saw were the potential long-range costs of the property,” he said. “I just didn’t think the property was worth it.” Money for the property is part of some borrowing included in next year’s budget, Fauber said, though officials “haven’t gotten into the specifics” yet. “My guess is closing’s going to take place before the borrowing, so we’ll have to take [the money] out of the reserve fund of the fund balance,” he said. “Then, once we do the borrowing, we’ll basically reimburse … ourselves for that amount.” A feasibility study of the property was completed by Wiley & Wilson, a Lynchburg-based firm now performing a needs assessment of Strasburg’s police, fire and rescue agencies. STRASBURG, B3 T