Eastern Panhandle Story Archives - Page 24 of 30 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Spring? Heavy Snow Falls in West Virginia, Kentucky

Updated on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at 12:25 p.m.

It might be spring, but areas of West Virginia and Kentucky look more like winter, especially at ski resorts, with up to a foot of snow forecast in some areas.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the eastern half of West Virginia until 11 p.m. Wednesday and in areas around Louisville, Kentucky, until 2 p.m. Much of the rest of both states were under a winter storm advisory that called for up to 5 inches of snowfall.

Snow fell Tuesday night and continued Wednesday afternoon, making travel difficult in some areas and leading several school systems to cancel classes.

Residents in some snow-bombarded areas of West Virginia were told to stay off the roads to allow crews to treat them.

Joe Castaldo, the state Department of Transportation’s Berkeley County supervisor, told the Journal of Martinsburg that numerous vehicles have slid off roads or become stuck on hills.

Castaldo suggested that people stay home if they can.

“If they have to be out, then try to stick to main primary routes and only go if you have four-wheel drive vehicles,” he said.

FirstEnergy said nearly 10,000 customers in northern and eastern West Virginia were without electricity on Wednesday, while Appalachian Power said more than 7,000 customers were without service in southern West Virginia.

In Louisville, Kentucky, heavy, wet snow fell at the rate of about an inch per hour, snapping tree limbs. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokeswoman Andrea Clifford said crews were salting and plowing roadways.

For some areas that have dodged snowfall this winter, it was the first major storm.

Sarah Schottler, who runs Blakeley Street Bakery in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle community of Charles Town, said a vendor show in Maryland where she was supposed to promote her products was canceled by the storm, but that freed her up to get some Easter cookie orders filled at her shop. Her two children got a snow day off from school Wednesday after about 8 inches of snow fell. More was still coming down.

“It’s definitely our only one for the year,” Schottler said. “I feel like a lot of people were kind of OK with it because you spend all winter wondering if we’re going to get any and we really didn’t get anything. And you know it’s the last one. So it’s like the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Some of West Virginia’s ski resorts are enjoying an early spring surge after a warm February, said Joe Stevens, spokesman for the West Virginia Ski Areas Association.

The storm has especially benefited a pair of cross country ski areas. Whitegrass Touring Center in Tucker County and the Elk River Touring Center in Pocahontas County should “finish the season strong with excellent conditions,” Stevens said.

During an eight-day stretch in mid-March, 70 inches of snow fell at Snowshoe Mountain Resort, and that was before the current storm hit. The resort had 40 of 60 trails open Wednesday and plans to keep them open through the end of the month.

The storm came too late for skiers hoping to get in one last run at Timberline Four Seasons Resort and Canaan Valley resort, which had already shut down its slopes. In southern West Virginia, Winterplace Ski Resort suspended operations after last weekend and plans to decide whether to re-open for slopes this weekend.

Regulators OK Discharge Permit for Pipeline Expansion Plan

Regulators have approved a construction stormwater discharge permit for Mountaineer Gas Co.’s proposed natural gas distribution line expansion in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

The Department of Environmental Protection said in a news release Wednesday the permit gives the DEP wide-ranging inspection and enforcement authority for the project.

The 23-mile project through Berkeley and Morgan counties includes crossing several creeks.

Mountaineer Gas has said it also plans to build a distribution line to supply natural gas for the expansion from a Columbia Gas transmission line in Pennsylvania.

Charleston-based Mountaineer Gas has about 220,000 customers and nearly 6,000 miles of pipelines.

Shepherd's Longtime Head Football Coach Announces Retirement

Monte Cater is retiring as Shepherd University’s head football coach after 31 seasons. Shepherd became an NCAA Division II school in the mid-90s, not long after Cater began his career at the school in 1987.

“It’s been very, very rewarding, and we’ve had some success,” Cater noted.

That success includes 245 wins, 93 losses, and one tie. Cater led the Shepherd Rams to 17 conference titles and 13 postseason appearances, including a national runner-up finish in 2015. His teams had six undefeated regular seasons.

Cater attributes that success to the quality of his staff and students, but also to continuity when recruiting players.

“You go into those high schools, they’re used to seeing that familiar face, and if they’ve sent you players before, they trust ya; that continuity has made a big difference, and you get a tradition going, and players come here because we’ve had a chance to be in the hunt most years,” he said.

Cater is the all-time winningest coach in West Virginia Conference and Mountain East Conference history.

Longtime assistant coach Ernie McCook has been named Cater’s replacement. Cater says McCook has been at Shepherd for 18 years and will do well as head football coach.

West Virginia Reports Increasing Lyme Disease Cases

Tick-borne Lyme disease has spread across West Virginia over the past six years with cases reported in 52 of the state’s 55 counties, according to state health officials.

Most cases are reported in the northern and eastern panhandles probably because of their proximity to the high-incidence states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the Department of Health and Human Resources said.

In an advisory Monday to health care providers, Health Commissioner Dr. Rahul Gupta wrote that the increase could be from increased reporting or from more ticks infected with the bacteria. Most cases appear between May and September, but ticks have become more active in winter months, he said.

According to the department, 580 cases have been reported so far this year, up from 97 statewide in 2012.

“Based on the change, West Virginia is considered a high incidence Lyme disease state,” Gupta wrote.

Patients treated early with antibiotics usually recover quickly. He recommended a two-step blood test to confirm evidence of antibodies against the Lyme disease bacteria.

Symptoms often include a circular rash around a tick bite and fever, headaches and fatigue, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. If left untreated, the infection can spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system.

The CDC says there were more than 36,000 probable cases in the U.S. last year, with 26,203 confirmed.

Job Growth in Eastern Panhandle Expected to Continue Upward Trend

An annual Eastern Panhandle Economic Outlook conference was held in Martinsburg, showing job growth is steady in the Eastern Panhandle and is expected to grow in the coming years.

Director of the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research John Deskins presented the findings at the conference.

He explained the Eastern Panhandle continues to be a leader in job growth, because of location, increased population, access to better education, and business investments.

“There’s been no recession here,” Deskins noted, “I mean, the state’s lost a lot of jobs between 2012 and 2016, and this area’s continued to grow at a healthy pace during that period.”

Deskins said that trend will likely go up as more investors like Procter & Gamble look to set up shop here.

WorkForce West Virginia reported in September that Jefferson County has the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.8 percent, while Mingo County has the highest rate at 8.2 percent. Overall state unemployment is at 4.4 percent, which is higher than the national average.

Deskins argues West Virginia counties that are struggling should focus on ways to make themselves more attractive to potential businesses, such as improving transportation infrastructure and cultivating a healthy workforce.

Eastern Panhandle Gas Pipeline Slated to Begin Despite Pushback

All summer long, pipeline protesters have been camped along the Potomac River in Maryland and West Virginia. They don’t want to see a 3.5 mile long TransCanada natural gas pipeline built underneath the river. Supporters argue the line is critical to expanding natural gas resources to businesses and homes in the growing Eastern Panhandle.

Of the three outermost counties of the Eastern Panhandle, only Berkeley has access to natural gas as a utility source. That gas comes from West Virginia’s largest gas distribution company – Mountaineer Gas based in Charleston.

Mountaineer has over 220,000 customers throughout the state. It’s located in 49 of West Virginia’s 55 counties, and it maintains over 6,000 miles of distribution pipeline.

The company wants to expand distribution lines to Jefferson and Morgan counties. To do that, it’s relying on the completion of the TransCanada line in Maryland which would hook up to Mountaineer’s 22.5 miles of new line slated to begin construction in early 2018. The state’s Public Service Commission has already approved the first phase of the project.

But sections of that 22.5 mile pipeline will travel through private property – like this 600 acre farm owned by the Kesecker family in Berkeley Springs.

“It’s just very heartbreaking to know that you thought you owned something, and, you do until somebody else wants it, and they come in and they take it away from you,” said landowner Patricia Kesecker.

Kesecker and her husband raised their family in Berkeley Springs. Their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren all live nearby.

The Keseckers farm extensively and the property has been in the family for over 80 years. They also rent portions of land to about ten other people. For the past year the family has been very vocal about their disapproval of the Mountaineer Gas’ Eastern Panhandle Pipeline project.

In June, they were taken to court by Mountaineer Gas, and the Keseckers lost. Mountaineer obtained the right of eminent domain. This means the company is allowed on the Kesecker’s property without prior consent, but the company must compensate the family.

The Keseckers say, however, they don’t want money.

“I mean, we’re at the age, yeah, money would be nice, but it’s not nice to have to see our farm destroyed and it’s not worth it. There’s too much heritage, too much work that’s been done on this farm; blood, sweat, and tears.”

The family plans to appeal the court decision.

Kesecker in her pickup truck as she shows the land she and her husband have owned and farmed for decades.

Kesecker shows me the vast expanse of acreage from her pickup truck. She points to an 8 to 10 acre field slated to host the pipeline. She says if the line goes through her property, it’ll disrupt corn and hay farming operations. Her family and tenants are also concerned about possible explosions or gas leaks.

“Why should they have our property and use it to what they want to do, and we’re paying the taxes still on it, and the insurance on our farm is on it? If it blows up, we wouldn’t have enough money to put back what they destroy or whoever they might kill in the process if you go across it with a tractor or something,” Kesecker said.

The 10-inch, steel, low-pressure pipeline would be buried at least four feet underground. Mountaineer Gas would clear and maintain a 50-foot right of way.

Senior Vice President of Mountaineer Gas, Moses Skaff says it’s rare that his company has needed to use eminent domain to secure pipeline pathways. He says the case with the Keseckers was one of only two for the Eastern Panhandle Pipeline. Skaff says out of 146 land tracts, 138 have been secured through deals with landowners.

Skaff also points out that Mountaineer has been present in the Martinsburg area for over 50 years without any reported safety issues.

“We have a 24-hour monitoring system of all of our distribution lines that provide alerts to our corporate office here in Charleston, which is manned 24-hours,” Skaff noted, “We’re mandated by West Virginia Pipeline Safety to conduct surveys of all of our pipeline, meaning we actually walk pipelines to ensure the integrity of those pipelines.”

Skaff reports less than one significant incident a year occurs along their distribution system. He says his company also trains local emergency responders how to deal with incidents. He notes landowners near the pipeline also have the option to tap-in for access to natural gas.

John Reisenweber is the Executive Director of the Jefferson County Development Authority, and like residents of Morgan County, he doesn’t have access to natural gas. Reisenweber is a landowner, too, and says he understands concerns over eminent domain.

“If we didn’t at times use eminent domain, we wouldn’t get anything done,” Reisenweber said, “We wouldn’t be able to build roads, I mean, this route 9; go find somebody who’s doesn’t like route 9. Go find them. Well, they were here a few years ago, and some of that was eminent domain. But they are compensated for it. They may not like it, but you have to look at what’s in the greatest interest of the community at large, and we believe that this project is in the greatest interest of the community at large, cause we do believe it’ll be done safely, and we do believe it’ll allow us to grow the economy.”

Back at the Kesecker farm, the family is hopeful their appeal will be heard in court. They also hope the shorter TransCanada line is not built. They say if it isn’t, their property would be spared since the Eastern Panhandle Pipeline project would have to be reworked.

Mountaineer Gas says the TransCanada line is vital to the future of natural gas in the Eastern Panhandle.