MLILY Mattresses in Roanoke, VA

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - “We realized this was probably going to happen,” Tanner Tamaro, former IRS employee, said. “Our managers started telling us ‘Prepare for the worst.’

Tanner Tamaro was hired at the Roanoke IRS office as an Internal Revenue Agent a month ago. He was let go Monday and says he felt it was coming.

“Word of mouth I guess, the internet, the news,” Tamaro said. “Obviously, we were seeing that this was possible, and it was happening and there was hearsay that it was going to come around at the IRS. My team is all basically trainees, so we are all subject to being cut, so we were all a little worried about it.”

Tamaro says he is one of 14 IRS employees in Roanoke now out of work after less than a year, one of thousands of federal workers let go in the past week.

Tamaro’s letter cited the ‘probationary period’ as the reason; he’s not buying it.

“It just seemed like they didn’t have any information as to what or why,” Tamaro said. “Obviously from what we’ve seen in the news and everything, it’s pretty much the administration taking a big sweeping cut to reduce the federal workforce. I think early on they were citing performance, but i think they changed their approach because obviously that was a lie.”

He says a week before his firing, his managers were reassuring.

“It’s okay, this is illegal, they can’t get rid of you unless there is performance concerns and there is no performance concerns here,‘” Tamaro said. “As the days went on it got closer, Elon Musk and his team showed up at the IRS and the tone changed. Our managers just more or less said they were sorry, and they had been preparing us for the worst, which was being terminated.”

Since Tamaro was in a probationary period, he didn’t get any severance. He’s since applied for unemployment and is fighting back.

“Then I appealed my firing,” Tamaro said, “which was recommended from the top, my direct managers. Then joined a class action lawsuit. I’ve been a little too buried in the news and there are some court cases coming around that are and have potential to reinstate these probationary firings. I’m not incredibly hopeful, but I am holding out some hope that I could be reinstated and pick up where I left off.”

Copyright 2025 WDBJ. All rights reserved.

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Season 48 of “Survivor” premieres Wednesday on CBS, and a man who grew up in Salem will be putting his survivor skills to the test.

While Kyle Fraser may now reside in New York, he said he’s proud to represent his hometown.

WDBJ7 spoke to the local contestant about his experience on the show.

“I’m kinda good at sports, I’m kinda smart, I’m kinda funny. Like I’m the best average guy you’ll ever meet,” said attorney Kyle Fraser.

From mountain tops to skyscrapers, Fraser has now taken his talents to Fiji Island to compete in the 48th season of Survivor. He said being on the show gave him a chance to show off his athletic and intellectual abilities.

“I like to try a bunch of different things. And I think that’s what sort of drew me towards Survivor. Like, I had a ton of different intellectual interests, but sports definitely anchored me, too,” he said.

The 31-year-old fell in love with the show recently and is now a castaway. He tells WDBJ7 his time on the island allowed him to test himself in ways he never has before.

“I was just like, what is this incredible social game with the physical element to it? There’s like this experiential part where you’re just out in nature, but then at the same time you’re competing. And I was like, that’s exactly what I want. Like just being around a completely different group of people I have no chance to meet in real life,” he added.

He said it was a unique experience that taught him a lot, giving him the chance to meet people from all walks of life.

“To go out there and be vulnerable and to open yourself up to all parts of the game, to people, to different people,” Fraser said. “I think that I came away a more vulnerable person, someone who’s willing to open up emotionally, who’s willing to acknowledge weaknesses and is willing to learn.”

And just when Fraser thought he was done making friends, his time on “Survivor” brought him a new family.

“You can always find family anywhere you look if you’re looking hard enough. And I’m so blessed to be a part of this show that’s continuing to evolve, that cares about people. It really is a social experiment. And I’m glad I got to participate because one thing I tried to do in my life is to just always try new things and be around new groups of people. And I think this was the best representation of that in a life in which I’ve already thought I’ve done a pretty good job of that,” he closed.

He’s hoping people will tune in and get to know the real Kyle.

Copyright 2025 WDBJ. All rights reserved.

ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - A retired couple in Roanoke County is searching for help after a fire destroyed their longtime home and nearly all their possessions.

Penny and William Goodwin have lived at their property on Poor Mountain Road for over 50 years, but they’ve been living in motels or with family for the last month after the fire destroyed their home of nearly 30 years.

“I think there was a shortage in the wiring going to the garage. We heard a pop and this racket, and it seemed to have spread fire to the garage. I had some gas in the can for lawnmowers and stuff like that, and I think it caught on fire. I think that’s what happened, and it spread to the house,” said William.

In addition to the fire itself, Penny Goodwin said she and her husband had more bad luck on the night of the fire in late January.

“I had called 911, the fire department, and they got stopped by a train. So it took them a little longer to get here than normal, and I believe that they could’ve saved the house if it hadn’t been for that,” she said. “We lost everything, and as the days go on it doesn’t get any easier.”

The Goodwins lost nearly everything they had in the fire, including several of their cats, most of their clothes, three motorcycles, and a metal box containing money and other valuables.

“The metal box burnt up, everything inside, everything I had. All my valuables were in there, and they burnt up, my guns are burnt up, metal detectors, I had metal detectors,” said William.

William was a mechanic in Salem for over three decades and said he also lost all of his tools in the fire.

The Goodwins want to stay on the property where they’ve lived for decades and raised all six of their children, but they aren’t sure what to do on their fixed income. Their home wasn’t insured because they say their insurance provider refused to insure a double-wide trailer as a home.

“We need lots of prayers. We really don’t know. I mean, all we have is a fixed income, that’s what we go on,” said Penny. “That doesn’t go far, it didn’t go far this time at all because it burnt up before I could use it,” added William.

Being retired, and living on a fixed income, the couple said not getting any insurance reimbursement has made it very difficult to figure out where they’re going to live.

“We’ve been looking on Craigslist and Marketplace and stuff like that, but nothing really suits us that we can afford anyway,” said Penny. “We can’t afford anything real expensive because we don’t have the money. We don’t have any money, hardly at all,” added William.

While the last month has been a struggle, the couple said people in the community have been very helpful to them, and for that, they are grateful.

“People have just been so generous. They really have, I couldn’t expect anything more than what people have been doing,” said Penny. “Yes, they’ve done real good, they’ve helped us a lot but we’ve still got a long way to go,” added William.

The Goodwins’ grandson has started a GoFundMe account to help support them. You can donate to it here.

Copyright 2025 WDBJ. All rights reserved.

City/county: Roanoke County

Overview

These two VDOT projects will improve safety and traffic flow by reconfiguring multiple intersections on the section of Route 460 between Blue Hills Village Drive and Route 1400 (Avery Row) in Roanoke County. The intersections will be reconstructed using innovative intersection design concepts such as restricted crossing U-turns (RCUT), thru-cuts or a displaced left turn.

See the intersection "Drive It" videos in the Videos tab at the bottom this page.

An RCUT redirects traffic that currently would turn left onto Route 460 from a side street to make a right turn and proceed to make a U-turn. A thru-cut intersection redirections side street through traffic to turn left or right at the signal and make a U-turn. A displaced left turn requires left-turning vehicles to cross to the other side of the road temporarily and reduces signal phases to improve the operations at the intersection.

The first project starts at Blue Hills Village Drive and extends about 1.1 miles east. Improvements include:

The second project starts 0.27 mile east of Huntridge Road and extends about 0.5 mile east. Improvements include:

VDOT completed a study in 2021 for the section of Route 460 (Orange Avenue/Challenger Avenue) from Route 11 (Williamson Road) to Route 220 Alternate (Cloverdale Road). This study identified and evaluated alternatives to address safety issues and to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion. Roanoke County submitted funding applications for the two projects between Blue Hills Village Drive and Avery Row as part of the SMART SCALE process and funding was approved by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

Status: In design

Estimated start date: Summer 2026

Estimated completion date: Spring 2028

Public hearing: Summer 2024

Advertise for construction bids: Spring 2026

Estimated cost of the project: $43.9 million

A design public hearing will be held on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Bonsack Elementary School, 5437 Crumpacker Drive in Roanoke. Comment sheets from the meeting and below may be mailed with your comments within 10 days (postmarked by Sept. 1, 2024) to Virginia Department of Transportation, Brett Elledge, VDOT Salem District, 731 Harrison Ave., Salem, VA 24153.

No photos currently available.

10 News spoke to friends who remember her as a kind and passionate person

ROANOKE, Va. – “I just think she wanted everyone to feel valued, and to feel like they had someone in their corner,” Susan William’s friend Amanda Charsha-Lindsey said.

Susan Williams was known as a public servant in the community - but to the people whose lives she touched, she was a beacon of hope.

People like Charsha-Lindsey.

“She truly made everyone feel like they were family,” Charsha-Lindsey said.

Charsha-Lindsey first met Susan over a decade ago and is now taking care of her beloved dog Ginny.

“She really became like my grandma in Roanoke. I moved here from Tennessee and didn’t know anyone besides my husband at the time. She really made sure that she remembered every birthday, anniversary, holiday,” Charsha-Lindsey said.

Throughout her 80 years, Susan dedicated her life to giving back.

She began her journey as CEO of the Local Office on Aging in 1988.

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Current president Ron Boyd shares that she was relentless in her advocacy for underserved communities.

“When I think of Susan and remember her, I think for about two decades she had a mobile sign that hung in her office, with just one word on each side. On the one side it said ‘challenge,’ and on the other side it was ‘opportunity.’ And I think that really spoke to her. I think of her passion,” Boyd said.

She headed up some of the agency’s biggest outreach opportunities, like Meals on Wheels.

It’s an issue she passionately advocated for during interviews with WSLS 10 over the years.

“The people that she served, how did they see her?” 10 News Anchor Abbie Coleman asked.

“The clients, she was very hands-on. She would do Meals on Wheels routes. Things that you wouldn’t typically think of a CEO as doing,” Boyd said.

Her death has ignited a newfound passion in Boyd’s mission to continue her legacy.

“It’s just hard to process right now. That she had lived such a rich life in her 80s. And to tragically be lost this way just lets us know that there’s a lot more work that needs to be done,” Boyd said.

Susan was an active member of the steering committee to end homelessness in our area.

Charsha-Lindsey says that Susan would never want her death to hinder the work being done.

“I hope that people learn to live like she did and learn to be a little more kind to people who are passing because that could be anyone out there. I do know that she wouldn’t want people to paint anyone with a blanket statement, especially the unhoused population,” she said.

As we remember Susan Williams, it’s impossible to overlook the countless awards and recognitions she received for her dedication to our community.

Charsha-Lindsey shared with 10 News that she truly believes Susan was serving others until her very last moments.

Copyright 2025 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.