Roy Bartlette, foreground left, and Wilburn Hastings look at the Bedford County Veterans Memorial, which they had just unveiled, during dedication services in March. (T-G file photo by Kay Rose) [Click to enlarge]

This week, the Times-Gazette is looking back at 2006 by counting down the top ten news stories of the year as voted by a panel of T-G staffers. Here are the stories revealed so far:

10) Eastern European students spend months in Shelbyville as temporary workers; some run into financial trouble

9) BCMC gets permission to build new hospital

Today, we look at the eighth and seventh most-newsworthy stories:

8) Veterans Memorial Plaza completed and dedicated; statue is defaced later in year (37 points)

A crowd estimated at 1,000 gathered on the courthouse square on a Saturday in March to dedicate the Veterans Memorial Plaza, which features a bronze sculpture by Russ Faxon of Bell Buckle. The sculpture, placed by the United Veterans Council, depicts a soldier holding hands with a young child and is meant to represent all soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen and the legacy which they are protecting and preserving through their service.

Money for the project was raised by the sale of commemorative pavers, most bearing the names of local veterans, which surround the base of the statue. The Times-Gazette was praised for its program of recognizing the veterans in whose name pavers were purchased; officials say it was the newspaper's decision to recognize the veterans which turned a sluggish fund-raising campaign into a successful one.

In October, the sculpture was defaced when a swastika was painted on the soldier's helmet. The damage had to be removed carefully in order not to damage the fine patina on the bronze. A reward was offered, but the vandal or vandals have not been identified.

7) Beloved T-G columnist Dick Poplin dies (40 points, 1 first place vote)

In July, all of Bedford County mourned the loss of Dick Poplin, 87, whose folksy "Scraps of Poplin" column had brought a smile to countless Times-Gazette readers over four decades. Only a few weeks earlier, Poplin had written a farewell column in which he disclosed that he had liver cancer.

"Every week," he wrote, "I got calls from readers or comments were passed on from those I saw in the grocery store or other places. I have said my readers and I know everything, but most of it is what the readers know. People sometimes ask what I write about, and I tell them a little history, a little folklore, a little genealogy, a little about old farm days, or just anything that crosses my mind or that the readers want to ask. Now, at age nearly 88 and with other complications, it is time to call a halt."

Poplin, a retired assistant postmaster and a Church of Christ minister, had written the column for more than 40 years, first for a small weekly paper and then in the T-G.

Top story suggestions were solicited from the T-G news staff. A ballot containing 29 story possibilities was circulated to 12 different T-G staffers, each of whom selected his or her top 10 choices. Ten points were awarded for a first place vote, nine for a second place vote and so on.

Original reporting by Clint Confehr contributed to this story.

THURSDAY: On death row or in selfless service, the human instinct is to survive