Eastern Panhandle Story Archives - Page 32 of 32 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Last Call for Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery

An Eastern Panhandle distillery decided to close its doors this week because of uncertainty about regulations the owners say are making their business unprofitable.

Distilleries must sell their liquor to the state and buy it back at a 28 percent markup under a provision of the liquor law called bailment. Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery in Jefferson County says that markup has made doing business unsustainable. Bloomery co-owner and founder Linda Losey says the bailment fee caused her to close her popular tasting room.

“So we had to make the decision to close down the tasting room operations because we, if we’re racking this money up, we won’t ever be able to pay it back.”

Losey said small distilleries like hers that sell directly to the public have been misclassified under the law and should be exempt from the bailment requirement. She says the state Alcohol Beverage Control Administration, the ABCA, promised a decision about the classification by January fifth of this year. The decision hasn’t been made yet. The distillery began a social media campaign to urge the ABCA to rule in its favor.

ABCA spokesman Gig Robinson says the distillery’s situation is a priority, but it will take time to sort out since any decision will affect the ten other distilleries in the state.

Bloomery isn’t the only distillery waiting for a ruling. Smooth Ambler, near Lewisburg, doesn’t rely as much on revenue from its tasting room, but bailment does affect its profit margin. Randi Smith, Smooth Ambler’s business manager, summed it up this way:

“If there has been a misclassification of distilleries in the state of West Virginia, and indeed we are not required to use the bailment system in order to sell retail product out of our own retail tasting rooms, you know, then we just want a ruling, we just want a clarification on that.”

Bloomery’s distillery is in West Virginia Senator John Unger’s district. He echoed ABCA’s assessment that Bloomery’s business model is unique and that any solution to its situation will affect other businesses in the state. However, he stressed that the state can’t afford to lose small businesses and must encourage their growth.

He said he has urged the ABCA to make a decision.

“They gave me commitment that Friday they would give an answer. Now, again, the answer that they give, it will be what they interpret the law. I’m hoping it’s favorable in the sense that all parties would be okay with whatever that interpretation is.”

If the decision isn’t agreeable, Unger said legislation may be required to address the problem.

Bloomery posted a message on its website explaining the closure.

Hospitals Deal with Widespread Flu Activity

Earlier this month the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a flu epidemic in the nation and named West Virginia a state with widespread flu activity. Now some hospitals in the eastern panhandle are taking extra precautions to make sure the virus doesn’t spread in their facilities.

University Healthcare Berkeley Medical Center and Jefferson Medical Center are adjusting policies to account for a flu outbreak. The two hospitals have made changes to patient visitation policies.

The changes include allowing only one permanent guest that is not noticeably sick per patient for decision making and support. No visitors are allowed that are experiencing a fever or cough and some restrictions are being put on visitors under 18. Visitation at both hospitals is now limited to two guests per patient including the permanent guest, between the hours of 9-11 a.m. and 5-7 p.m.

A release from the hospitals says visitor restrictions are temporary, but will remain in place till the hospitals feel comfortable lifting the restrictions.

Libraries in the Eastern Panhandle Say They Need More Funding

As the demand for Internet resources increases, libraries are the starting place for free information. However, budget cuts have forced libraries across the state to scale back drastically on operating hours and access to services, just when it seems those resources are most needed. The Jefferson County branch of the League of Women Voters hosted a public forum on ways the community in the Eastern Panhandle can support the public libraries in their area. These libraries say they have much to offer the public but need more funding.

At the public forum, five directors of the Berkeley and Jefferson County libraries gave insight on the services their particular library provides. From delivery services, to early literacy programs, to collections of distinctive Eastern Panhandle history, all five libraries spoke on the uniqueness of what their library has to offer. Gretchen Fry, the director of the Bolivar Harpers Ferry Public Library, argues that while online bookstore rentals may seem great, they can’t compete with what a library can do for its patrons.

“Libraries are able to provide a large selection of eBooks because of the fact that they actually have access to a number of vendors,” said Fry, “whereas Amazon actually is more restricted in what vendors they can provide, because a lot of them won’t sell to Amazon, so we actually can purchase a larger variety of eBooks.”

Fry says some publishers of certain bestsellers choose to sell to libraries over resources like Amazon. Because of this, libraries tend to provide a larger amount of online and physical collections.

“People would prefer to actually go to their library, because they can get a wider selection and it’s free–they don’t have to pay anything.A nd the way the current situation actually with libraries is set up, they don’t have to pay fines either for library books, like a traditional library book. What happens is after you check out the book, it just expires, you don’t have to pay a fine.”

Pam Coyle, the director of the Martinsburg-Berkeley Public Library, spoke on the upcoming November 4^th levy in Kanawha County. If the levy would pass, the libraries in the county would receive over $3 million for five years sponsored by the Board of Education. While the pass of the levy would not directly affect the libraries in the Eastern Panhandle, Coyle does think it could send a very prominent message throughout the state.

“Kanawha County has its own levy that’s going out. That’s not, other than interlibrary loan, will not affect us, but it will affect the attitude of, when we have to go out probably for our own levy, which may or may not happen in the future, depending on what happens with the school board, and libraries across the state. Because if it can get passed in Kanawha County, then it can hopefully pass in every county that they could have their own levy, that’s dedicated specifically to the library and not dependent on any other agency,” noted Coyle.

With big dreams of expanding, the Jefferson and Berkeley County libraries hope to receive more funding in the near future. And if the November 4^th levy passes in Charleston, they hope it will provide a ringer to the rest of the state that libraries need help.

Senate Debates Bill on Unfair Trade Practices

Legislators stood Thursday to speak to legislation that has not yet made it to the floor. Senate Bill 368 was introduced by Senator Herb Snyder early in the session repealing unfair trade practices.

The bill focuses on a section of code written in the late 1930s. At the time, many states and the federal government put laws in place that prevented major retailers from undercutting the prices of mom and pop stores, forcing them out of business.

Since, Snyder said many gas retailers across the state have used that same decades old law to file lawsuits against companies who open shop in a new area and sell their fuel at significantly lower prices.

He said it’s that practice that is causing significant price increases in gas in the Eastern Panhandle, but members of the oil and gas lobby are protesting its consideration.

“You’re getting calls from those people I remind you that are in the oil marketing business. Every one of them. Mr. President, this bill is not about those people and whether they’re going to compete with each other as this bill will make it in the open and free market. Mr. President, this bill is about the 99.9% of West Virginians that aren’t making profits from the sale of gasoline and fuels. This bill is clearly about the citizens of West Virginia to give them the opportunity to buy the least expensive gas on the open market without artificial controls by law and it’s not a question of will they use Chapter 47-11-1A to inflate prices. They have.”

Senator Sam Cann stood to question the bill, however, saying he’s not positive it’s the best way to help small businesses outside of the gas industry across the state.

“We always talk about small businesses in West Virginia and what do we do to help them? I believe that we have a lot of small businesses that could be harmed if we take this action. I worry about Ace Hardware in my neighborhood competing with Lowes and Home Depot. I worry about Food Fresh staying open when competing with Sam's. You know, the big box stores have the advantage on a volume basis and if this rule and this law stays in place and it helps a number of these small business, because I don’t believe it’s just about the oil marketers. I don’t believe it’s just about gasoline. I believe it’s about a lot of small mom and pop industries, little shops and stores that we need to make sure we’re not harming if we take this action.”

That statement sparked comments from Senator Doug Facemire, a grocer who started his own chain in northern and central West Virginia.

Facemire said it’s impossible for the small owners to compete with big box stores like Wal Mart or Sams because of their buying power, but he believes Senators should be looking at what’s best for citizens.

“We owe it to the citizens of our state to open up a system where the real capitalist market takes place. We all complain about the fair and unfair trade rules that our country has to face when doing business across the seas. It’s the same thing today. The only thing this bill does is let the big boys bigger and the small people suffer because they will always have a better cost of goods. The way the bill is written, it really doesn’t offer protection and let’s stop and think who’s in here complaining. A lot of it’s the big guys. Thank you Mr. President.”

Snyder’s bill is single referenced to Judiciary, but has yet to be put on the committee’s calendar.

http://youtu.be/qyVHVux58y4

Eastern Panhandle Residents Discuss Child Poverty

The forum started with opening remarks from State Sen. John Unger (D-Berkeley) and Del. Tiffany Lawrence (D-Jefferson). Participants then watched part of…

The forum started with opening remarks from State Sen. John Unger (D-Berkeley) and Del. Tiffany Lawrence (D-Jefferson). Participants then watched part of the PBS film Poor Kids and a short preview of a film about child poverty in the state being produced by West Virginia PBS.

They then met in smaller groups to talk about how poverty affects children academically and socially, stereotypes associated with being poor, what resources are available in the community and what can be done to prevent families from becoming poor.

United Way of the Eastern Panhandle Executive Director Pete Mulford shared his observations about the film clips.

“There was the one young kid that still had a dream,” Mulford said. “The nice thing was that the fact that you can still dream or hope or desire to have something better wasn’t lost yet in the kids.”

School teachers in another group talked about how hunger affects their students’ attitude and academic performance. Each group created a list of how they see poverty impacting children and what can be done about it.

Suggestions included having more people to work directly with poor families to help them find jobs and housing, breaking down barriers that prevent people from getting jobs and making more mental health services available.

The goal of the event was to encourage participants to take action by volunteering, donating money to organizations that help the poor and advocating for policies that help families dealing with poverty.