Thrillseekers to Participate in West Virginia's Bridge Day

Thrillseekers from across the globe are converging on Fayetteville for the annual Bridge Day festival.

Saturday’s event is the one day a year that it’s legal to jump off the 876-foot high span across the New River Gorge.

Hundreds of BASE jumpers are registered to do just that. The acronym BASE stands for the places from which jumpers usually leap: buildings, antennae, spans and earth.

More than 80,000 people are expected to walk across the bridge. Rappellers also will make their way from a catwalk under the bridge to the water below, and some participants will make a controlled descent on a tethered cable from the catwalk.

The New River Gorge Bridge, the third-highest bridge in the United States, opened in 1977. Bridge Day started three years later.

Downtown Fayetteville to Connect to New River Gorge With Trail

The Federal Lands Access Program has awarded a $230,000 grant for a hiking and biking trail that will link downtown Fayetteville to trails in the New River Gorge National River.

Work on the 4-mile trail is expected to begin in 2017.

West Virginia State University Extension Service agent Adam Hodges tells The Charleston Gazette-Mail that the project’s timeline assumes Congress will continue to fund the lands access program at existing levels.

Hodges says some sections of the trail will be on streets and roads. The off-road section will run from downtown Fayetteville to Fayetteville High School through land owned by Cascade Properties.

The trail will connect with the trail system at Fayetteville Town Park, which links with seven trails in the national park.

Fayette County to Require Permits for Injection Wells

Operators of future underground injection wells in Fayette County will have to obtain a permit from the county.

The County Commission on Wednesday amended the county’s development code to require county permits for injection wells and holding ponds.

A public hearing will be required before the county board of zoning on permit applications for wells in districts zoned for heavy industrial use. Three public hearings will be required before the zoning board, planning commission and County Commission for wells in other districts.

Injection wells pump oil and gas drilling waste underground for disposal.

Opponents of the practice say local permitting is a good step but doesn’t go far enough. Mary Rahall says the county should ban the disposal of such waste.

Fayetteville Awarded 'Clean Community' Grand Prize

Four West Virginia communities have been recognized by the state Department of Environmental Protection for environmental stewardship in 2013.The DEP’s…

Four West Virginia communities have been recognized by the state Department of Environmental Protection for environmental stewardship in 2013.

The DEP’s Make It Shine Program has awarded Clean Community Awards to New Cumberland, the Village of Beech Bottom, Alderson and Fayetteville.

 

Fayetteville was the grand prize winner and will receive $500 to apply toward additional cleanup/beautification projects. Fayetteville was recognized for efforts that 

include conducting environmental education on recycling and anti-littering in the local schools; hosting an annual Earth Day celebration; and passing a dilapidated housing ordinance to reduce the number of nuisance properties in the town.

 

Clean Community Awards are presented annually. Each municipality’s application is judged in several categories, including cleanup, recycling, youth participation and 

beautification.

 

 

For more information about the Clean Community Awards, contact Travis Cooper at 1-800-322-5530 or by email at Travis.L.Cooper@wv.gov.

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