With archery and crossbow season underway across the state, officials with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources remind hunters that all mammals, including white-tailed deer, are vulnerable to rabies.
A free roaming white-tailed deer has tested positive for rabies in Hampshire County.
The county’s first confirmed case this year indicates that more animals are likely infected with the disease.
With archery and crossbow season underway across the state, officials with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources remind hunters that all mammals, including white-tailed deer, are vulnerable to rabies.
A string of suspected arson fires in Hampshire County has led to an investigation by the state Fire Marshal’s office.
A string of suspected arson fires in Hampshire County has led to an investigation by the state Fire Marshal’s office.
Five fires happened mostly along Route 50 Thursday evening into Friday morning, all affecting vacant buildings within a 10 mile stretch between Augusta and Capon Bridge.
Two similar fires were reported in the same general area on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4.
Chief investigator Jason Baltic says the investigation points to all of the fires being linked.
“Two of the scenes, we’re able to say that they’re incendiary fires, that they were arson,” Baltic said. “The others, we’re still working on.”
Another site of a potential arson was discovered Friday evening, bringing the total number of potentially linked fires to eight, though investigators are unsure when exactly the fire occurred.
Among the buildings burnt down was Hook’s Tavern, an 18th century building used during the Civil War to house Confederate soldiers. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
No deaths or injuries as a result of the fires have been reported.
The Fire Marshal’s office is currently working with the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Department and the West Virginia Fusion Center in the investigation.
“We’re developing a lot of evidence, putting a lot of things together,” Baltic said. “And hopefully we’ll have an arrest forthcoming.”
Any information about the incidents can be reported to the West Virginia Fire Marshal Hotline at 1-800-233-3473.
Student enrollment in West Virginia’s K-12 public schools has decreased this year.
West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch told West Virginia Board of Education members this week that enrollment in West Virginia public schools has dropped by more than 1,400 students compared to last year.
The drop, according to Burch, is due to continued population loss in the state and the impacts of the pandemic.
For the 2021-2022 school year, there are 250,899 students enrolled in public schools in the state.
Additionally, the state board of education agreed to permanently close and consolidate schools in Hampshire and Lincoln counties.
Hampshire County will close John J. Cornwell Elementary School ahead of schedule due to enrollment decreases, safety concerns and required educational needs. It’s one of five elementary schools earmarked to close after the county passed a school construction bond in 2020.
The board also approved the closure and consolidation of Duval pre-K-8 and Midway Elementary in Lincoln County due to structural concerns. The facility closed in July.
Students at all three schools have been reassigned temporarily to nearby schools until consolidation can begin.
The board also placed the following policies on public comment until Dec. 13, 2021:
Policy 2315, Comprehensive School Counseling Program will be repealed and replaced to update content to align with current terminology in the West Virginia School Counseling Model and W.Va. Code §18 5 18b.
Policy 2322, West Virginia System of Support and Accountability has been revised to clarify accountability requirements for all public schools. It will also embed requirements for county board of education member-training currently outlined in Policy 3235, Definition of Good Cause Failure to Receive School Board Training, which will be repealed. Additionally, it will embed West Virginia Report Card requirements currently outlined in Policy 7300, Better Schools Accountability: School, School Districts, and Statewide School Report Cards, which will also be repealed.
Policy 5100, Approval of Educator Preparation Programs has been revised for the purpose of adding clarifying language.
Gov. Jim Justice has hired a former campaign staff member as his Regional Representative for West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle counties.
Martinsburg-native Summer Ratcliff will split her time between Martinsburg and Charleston and work as a Legislative Assistant during the state Legislative sessions, according to a press release.
After the session, Ratcliff will serve as a Regional Representative to Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, Mineral, Grant, Hardy, and Pendleton Counties.
Her role will be the primary point of contact for constituents in those counties and serve as a direct line to the governor.
The press release states she will assist local governments, organizations, and residents who want to communicate with the governor’s office and state government as a whole.
Ratcliff is a graduate of West Virginia University, and has spent her career in public service and politics.
On April 19, 1889, Susan Dew Hoff passed the state medical exam, becoming one of the first licensed women physicians in West Virginia history.
As a youth, the Hampshire County native had moved with her family to West Milford in Harrison County, where her father was a doctor. She sometimes accompanied him on house calls.
And he encouraged her to pursue a medical career, but medical colleges were closed to women in the mid-1800s.
As Hoff raised a family of five, she self-taught herself by reading her father’s medical books and discussing medicine with him.
In April 1889, at age 42, she traveled to Wheeling to take the exam. Not only did she pass, she received the highest score of anyone in her group.
Hoff practiced medicine in West Milford for more than four decades. In the early days, she made house calls on horseback, charging $1 for each call plus $1 per mile.
She died in 1933 at age 90. A West Milford clinic that provides free health and dental care is named the Susan Dew Hoff Memorial Clinic in her honor.
In 2017, West Virginia Public Broadcasting featured one of West Virginia’s last remaining broom makers; Kanawha County resident Jim Shaffer. The story ended with a question: would this dwindling art continue once Shaffer retired? Well, it turns out, a whole family in Hampshire County makes brooms together, and they were inspired by Shaffer himself.
Meet Wanda Hott – Broom Maker
Just about 20 miles from Romney, West Virginia is a little town called Kirby. Kirby is home to Wanda Hott and her family. She owns a big farm which has been in her family since the 1930s.
Credit Daniel Walker / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Photo credit: Daniel Walker/WVPB
Wanda Hott ties the broom corn while using the machine she purchased from Jim Shaffer.
Hott works as a professional school bus driver for Hampshire County Schools during a normal workday, but for more than a decade she’s also been a broom maker.
“I got into broom making, because my sister wanted to know what I wanted for Christmas one year,” Hott said. “I needed a broom; I wanted a practical broom, and she got me a broom from Jim Shaffer.”
Hott fell in love with that broom, and she remembered her great-great grandmother used to make brooms. She wanted to learn how to make them too and started teaching herself. For some help, she reached out to Jim Shaffer and began buying his broom-making supplies. Soon, they became friends.
Credit Daniel Walker / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Photo credit: Daniel Walker/WVPB
Wanda and her husband Steve work on the broom making machine they purchased from Jim Shaffer.
Passing on a Legacy
Hott has been making brooms for the past thirteen years now. And then, last year, Jim Shaffer called her and told her he had decided he was not able to continue making brooms. Hoping to pass on his craft to the right person, he offered to sell her his broom making equipment. She accepted.
Hott hopes her broom making business will be her main source of income once she retires from school bus driving.
Credit Daniel Walker / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Photo credit: Daniel Walker/WVPB
And, as it turns out, two of Hott’s teenage granddaughters, Shelby and Kierra Westfall, have taken a particular interest in the broom making craft as well.
“It sparks my interest,” Shelby said. “It’s something that I’m actually able to sit down and do, and it doesn’t lose my interest.”
Credit Daniel Walker / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Photo credit: Daniel Walker/WVPB
And her younger sister, Kierra feels the same way.
“I’m a really hands on person, so I really like to be able to feel something and have it in my hands, and broom making’s a really good way to do that,” Kierra explained. “And I like spending family time, cause I think family time [is] really important, so it’s kind of a way to do both for me.”
Clay Lick Brooms & The W.Va. Broom Barn
Shelby and Kierra often work alongside their grandma. Hott’s taught them to make a variety of multi-purpose or decorative brooms by hand, but she isn’t really sure how the craft became such a big part of her family.
“It just evolved,” Hott said. “I learned to make the broom to start with, and then I would teach my sister and our friend, and when family members came, they would jump in and it was a big thing. Anybody that wanted to see, we’d teach ‘em how to make brooms.”
Credit Daniel Walker / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Photo credit: Daniel Walker/WVPB
Hott has two separate broom shops on her farm. One is the W.Va. Broom Barn and the other is the Clay Lick Broom Shop. The brooms she makes with Jim Shaffer’s equipment are made in the W.Va. Broom Barn and take about 25 minutes to finish. They sell for about $17. Hott sells them to local Lions Clubs, just like Shaffer did.
But the brooms made in the Clay Lick Broom Shop are made entirely by hand without the machine. Since they take longer to make, Hott sells these for up to $50.
A Family Tradition
Hott hopes broom making continues to spark interest for her family. For Shelby and Kierra, they want to continue the tradition too.
Credit Daniel Walker / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Photo credit: Daniel Walker/WVPB
“I think it’s a really great thing that there are still people around [who] still want to make brooms, because it is a really neat and wonderful thing to learn,” Kierra said.
“It’s something that I think should be passed on; people should know how to do it, cause you’re not always gonna have plastic, and you’re not gonna always have machines,” Shelby said. “The broom corn is something you can grow and make yourself; you don’t have to go and buy it.”
Credit Daniel Walker / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Photo credit: Daniel Walker/WVPB
Shelby sits with her family’s collie, Sadie.
Wanda Hott’s brooms have been getting noticed. She’s even had customers as far away as California and Illinois. And with her entire family also interested in making brooms, for now, it looks like this artform won’t be disappearing in West Virginia anytime soon.
