BIDS SOUGHT FOR NOTTOWAY LANES AGAIN
Nottoway County once again is seeking proposals for its idle Nottoway Lanes bowling alley on Darvills Road.
In a Legal Notice in today’s Courier-Record, the County says that proposals must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. local time on Thursday, April 23rd.
The County in December 2024 approved a high bid of $430,000 from Kyle Houts, but that deal fell through.
The County readvertised for bids in 2025 and received five proposals, including a $350,000 cash offer from Blackstone native Winnie Moss. Supervisors in October, however, rejected all five bids without discussion, then in December voted 5-0 to authorize County Administrator Steve Bowen to sign a contract “with a person” for the alley.
That person turned out to be a convicted sex offender, and all five Supervisors had been informed of that fact one week prior to their vote. Public outcry followed, and Supervisors voted 5-0 at a special meeting in Janu- ary to withdraw from the deal.
The story of Nottoway Lanes, which opened in 2010, has been a local government saga for nearly eight years.
The bowling alley took a big hit — literally — in September 2018 when a Blackstone woman upset with her then-boyfriend drove through the side of the building, with the car coming to rest in Lanes 8 and 9. A photo of the car inside the bowling alley was circulated all over the world via internet. Shortly after re-opening many months later, COVID-19 arrived and shut it down again.
The facility re-opened in March 2023 under new management — Glen Allen-based Inception Amusement. But the County pulled its lease shortly after an August 2023 “American Studs/Ladies Night” event that featured scantily-clad male dancers, some of whom engagaed in intimate kissing with area women while others screamed in apparent delight.
The County built Nottoway Lanes on Rt. 40 in 2010, after fire in March 2008 destroyed the former Pickett Lanes in the County-owned area declared excess by the U. S. Army after the 1995 BRAC decision that “closed” Pickett. The Virginia National Guard assumed command in Oct. 1997.
County officials used insurance proceeds from the 2008 fire and chose the Rt. 40 location outside of the base so it would be more accessible to area civilians, yet still close enough for soldiers training at Pickett to patronize.
In doing so, County officials rejected an offer from the Town of Blackstone to build the new bowling alley in the Town Square, created by the 2004 downtown fire that destroyed three businesses. Blackstone, which had acquired “the hole” with state grant money, offered its site to the County free-ofcharge. Nottoway declined.
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