Weather-related delays have pushed back the repairs of a Morgan County rail line after 10 cars on a CSX Transportation train derailed Monday afternoon.
After 10 cars on a CSX Transportation train derailed in rural Morgan County Monday, emergency personnel restored one of two affected rail lines in less than a day.
Emergency officials said they have already removed the rail cars involved in the incident.
But recent snow in the Eastern Panhandle has pushed back repairs on the other affected rail line, according to Sheriee Bowman, CSX senior manager of media relations.
Originally, CSX expected to complete rail line repairs Wednesday afternoon. But Bowman wrote in an email that weather has played a role in delaying the rail repairs.
As a result, service has not yet been restored to the Morgan County portion of the railway affected by the derailment.
As of Thursday, “work will continue throughout the day until service is fully restored,” Bowman wrote.
She did not specify when CSX expects to fully complete the rail line repairs.
Repairs on a rail line are expected to continue until Wednesday after a train derailed in rural Morgan County. No injuries or hazardous material spills were reported.
Updated on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 4:10 p.m.
CSX and emergency response personnel worked through Monday night to address a derailment near Magnolia, an unincorporated community in Morgan County.
Sheriee Bowman, senior manager of media relations at CSX Transportation, wrote in an updated statement Tuesday afternoon that the derailment involved 10 cars — not nine — and that it impacted two rail lines.
Service was slated to resume Tuesday afternoon on one of these rail lines, Bowman wrote. Repairs on the second line were planned to continue until Wednesday afternoon.
The cause of the incident remains under investigation.
Original Post: Train Derails In Morgan County, No Injuries Reported
A freight train derailed near Magnolia, an unincorporated community in Morgan County, around 4:16 p.m. Monday.
No injuries were reported from the incident, according to a written statement from Sheriee Bowman, senior manager of media relations at CSX Transportation — the company that operates the train.
Bowman wrote that nine cars were involved in the derailment, including one containing dry cement, one containing calcium chloride and four containing sodium hydroxide.
None of the cars containing hazardous materials experienced spillage, she wrote.
In a news release Monday afternoon, Amtrak said that a train traveling from Washington, D.C. to Martinsburg had reversed its course due to the disabled freight train.
Kimberly Woods, senior public relations manager for Amtrak, wrote in an email that Capital Limited trains 29 and 30 remain canceled due to the derailment.
Gov. Jim Justice, the West Virginia Emergency Management Division and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection released a joint statement Monday night, which stated that the agencies were directed “to extend necessary resources and assistance” to resolve the derailment.
Emergency personnel at the scene included local and county-level response teams from both West Virginia and Maryland, the joint statement said.
“CSX appreciates the swift response of the local first responders,” Bowman wrote. “The safety of the community and everyone on site is CSX’s top priority as we develop a recovery plan.”
The cause of the incident remains under investigation, Bowman added.
A little more than a year ago, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling toxic chemicals, threatening the air and water for local residents.
**Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that a CSX train derailed in East Palestine over a year ago. It was a Norfolk Southern train that derailed. The story has been updated with the correction.
On this West Virginia Morning, the American Lung Association released its annual State of the Air Report, which grades Americans’ exposure to unhealthy pollution levels. Aimee MacCleave, advocacy director for the American Lung Association’s West Virginia office, spoke to Appalachia Health News Reporter Emily Rice about West Virginia’s report card.
On this West Virginia Morning, the American Lung Association released its annual State of the Air Report, which grades Americans’ exposure to unhealthy pollution levels. Aimee MacCleave, advocacy director for the American Lung Association’s West Virginia office, spoke to Appalachia Health News Reporter Emily Rice about West Virginia’s report card.
Also, in this show, Mon Power has offered to operate the Pleasants Power Station into next year. But how much will it cost? Will the plant produce any power? Curtis Tate has more.
And, Morgan County citizens have organized weekly gatherings at Cacapon State Park in protest of a plan by the state’s Division of Natural Resources to build an RV campground on park grounds. Shepherd Snyder has the story.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.
Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
Morgan County citizens have organized weekly gatherings at Cacapon State Park in protest of a plan by the state’s Division of Natural Resources to build an RV campground on park grounds.
Morgan County citizens have organized weekly gatherings at Cacapon State Park in protest of a plan by the state’s Division of Natural Resources (DNR) to build an RV campground on park grounds.
A group of more than one hundred citizens gathered at the park’s upper lake to discuss their concerns. Three proposals for development have been submitted to the DNR.
The development comes after House Bill 4408 was passed into law during the 2022 West Virginia Legislative session. It allows for contracts to be granted to private companies to build recreational and lodging facilities on state park grounds.
Morgan County resident Bruce Goldstein is one of many in the area concerned about the ecological impacts of such a development.
“We have been using this park a lot,” Goldstein said. “We hike in it regularly. And we’ve used the lakes, and we’ve had friends and family come to stay here and take advantage of this great park.”
Environmental groups like the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Sierra Club have voiced similar concerns, alongside the Morgan County Commission. They say it could cause traffic and safety issues, overwhelm the park’s sewer plant and cause excessive excavation and clear-cutting of trees.
Protesters say the bid from Blue Water Development, which proposes up to 350 spots for RVs alongside other amenities, would be the most likely to be accepted, as it’s the closest fit to the DNR’s criteria of a private company continuing to maintain the campground after construction.
Another proposal from River and Trail Outfitters suggests the state would maintain it, and a third proposal from Scenic LLC suggests collaborating with the state park on the creation of a site outside park grounds.
“I don’t even think they could pick that proposal, even if they want it,” said fellow resident Steve Hay. “Even if they could, it’s still a short circuiting of a process that really needs to happen.”
Hay, like other protesters, is concerned with bringing public voices and concerns to the selection process.
“That is what our message is, is to cancel this process and begin a new process that gets public input, that respects the ecology of the park and does all the things that are in the public interest,” Hay said.
The DNR canceled a public hearing on park grounds scheduled for Tuesday evening. A lawsuit filed Monday in Morgan County Circuit Court alleged the division did not provide adequate public notice before the scheduled date.
“We perceived that the DNR’s public notice for this coming hearing, which is supposed to be a Class II legal advertisement that runs twice in 20 days before the hearing, was not following the law,” said lawyer Larry Schultz, who was also present at the protests.
A legal notice was posted beforehand, but in Berkeley County-based newspaper The Journal, according to Morgan County newspaper The Morgan Messenger.
The DNR maintains they had provided lawful notice but agreed to cancel the meeting, according to a legal filing with the Morgan County Circuit Court.
“The Defendants maintain that the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has provided lawful notice, pursuant to §§ 20-5-16 and 59-3-2 of the West Virginia Code, and would prevail on the merits,” the filing said. “However, the Defendants do not wish to proceed if there is an appearance of impropriety, but instead desire to assure the public that it is in full compliance with any and all notice requirements. Accordingly, the Defendants find it fitting to cancel the meeting scheduled for April 18, 2023.”
There is as of yet no postponed date for the hearing.
A heavily trafficked road in the Eastern Panhandle is going to expand to help drivers and commuters get to their destinations faster and safer.
The Berkeley Springs Bypass project will stretch a little more than three miles from south of Winchester Grade Road to Martinsburg Road in Morgan County.
This new road will allow vehicles to bypass US Route 522, which sees a current traffic volume of 13,400 vehicles per day. Approximately 30 percent of those vehicles are trucks, according to Gov. Jim Justice, who made the announcement over the weekend in Berkeley Springs.
“This project will alleviate traffic congestion, enhance safety, and increase roadway capacity along the US 522 corridor,” Justice said. “There’s a lot of people putting in a lot of good licks to make these things happen.”
The project is part of the governor’s Roads to Prosperity initiative, which is in its third year. The bond program has seen $1 billion in major infrastructure improvement projects to-date.
The contract for the new bypass project in Morgan County was awarded to the Trumbull Corp. with a bid of $59.8 million.
The project will create a four-lane highway with a diamond interchange at the intersection of West Virginia Route 9. It includes construction of three bridges – one mainline bridge and one overpass bridge – and three new at-grade intersections.
“This project is important for human safety,” said West Virginia Sen. Charlie Trump, R-Morgan, at the event. “It’s going to be a great project for Morgan County, and for the safety of the people of West Virginia and people from all over the United States who drive this highway.”
Another Morgan County lawmaker, West Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Pro Tempore Daryl Cowles, R-Morgan, was also at the event. Cowles said the new bypass will do more than make a safer highway.
“It’s great to have a safe highway, it’s great to have the trucks out of downtown [Berkley Springs] for the tourism industry, but let’s not forget that this will change people’s lives,” Cowles said. “It will lift and raise the boats of home budgets and the prosperity of regular citizens everyday.”
The eastern edge of the Eastern Panhandle, consisting of Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties, has seen massive growth in population in the past decade. Berkeley County alone from 2010 to 2018 saw more than 1,500 new people each year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
But population growth also means heavier traffic and more upkeep of roads.
In an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting last year, the state Division of Highways said to adequately fund the state’s road needs, West Virginia would need at least $2.4 billion every year, which is twice what the state sees on average annually for road needs.
According to the state DOH, West Virginia has the sixth-largest transportation system in the country based on the number of miles of road in the state. The state has 36,000 miles of roadway largely maintained by the Division of Highways.
Only 14,000 miles of roadway in West Virginia are eligible for federal dollars, according to the DOH. The rest must come from state tax dollars like tolls, DMV fees and gasoline taxes.
In an emailed statement to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Sandy Hamilton, the executive director of the development authority in Berkeley County – which is the county that neighbors Morgan and often feeds into Morgan’s traffic congestion – said the bypass project will benefit the entire Eastern Panhandle.
“The Berkeley Springs Bypass project benefits our entire region, and particularly from an economic development standpoint,” Hamilton said. “Infrastructure improvements of this magnitude enhance and encourage our ability to more effectively market our attributes.”
Every year for Christmas, cats are often given as gifts. But many end up in animal shelters. In fact, 3.2 million cats enter animal shelters every year in the United States, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
And every year, about 860,000 are euthanized in shelters. But places like “cat cafes” may be helping more cats find forever homes.
Give Purrs A Chance
At a two-story, Victorian-style housein downtown Berkeley Springs, Morgan County, about 50 cats and kittens are roaming freely. All have been spayed or neutered, defleaed, dewormed, socialized and are up to date on their shots.
Give Purrs A Chance opened in May 2017. For an $8 admission fee, visitors have access to Purrs and its feline residents for an entire day. They can come cuddle kitties for an hour or two, walk down the street for a bite to eat or a cup of coffee, and then return for more cuddles.
If you want to take one home, it’s a $100 adoption fee.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A kitten at “Give Purrs A Chance.”
Purrs is a nonprofit cat adoption agency that was created by local resident George Farnham. He got the idea from cat cafes that have been popping up in the U.S. since 2014.
“I’ve just been an animal lover all my life,” Farnham said. “When I first heard about the concept of cat cafes in the United States, it just seemed to be the way of the future — how adoptions are handled — and so, I just wanted to be a part of that.”
Farnham calls Purrs a cat cafe, but it doesn’t serve food or drink. Farnham said to do that, the West Virginia Health Department required a closed off area for food prep and a separate entrance, so he opted not to serve food. But the nonprofit does offer free-ranging cuddle buddies, which is a staple of cat cafes, so he hung onto the term.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Give Purrs A Chance” has found homes for more than 700 cats since opening in 2017, according to founder George Farnham.
The house has hardwood floors, colorful walls, cat-themed artwork, bean bag chairs, and plenty of toys.There are places for cats to lounge, hide or climb. There’s a room just for kittens, and there’s a space just for cats on the shy side.
There’s also a little shop inside the house called the Catique Boutique that features local artists’ work for sale and accounts for about 10 percent of the overall income of the nonprofit.
The cats mainly come from four nearby rescues and shelters in the Eastern Panhandle and from across the border in Hagerstown, Maryland.
Farnham is a volunteer at Purrs, but there are eight part-time employees who keep the place running, including Brianne VanScoy. VanScoy said what she loves about the concept of a cat café is it can help someone better connect with a potential pet.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A photo of every cat that’s ever been adopted from “Purrs” is posted on the walls in the house.
“I think it’s easier for people to adopt a cat here because there’s less pressure, and they can spend more time getting to know an animal,” VanScoy said. “And that gives them a lot of opportunities to get to know an older cat as opposed to a kitten.”
According to the ASPCA, more than 1.6 million cats are adopted every year from shelters. Since 2014, cat cafes have popped up around the country, and most are adoption focused. But some animal welfare organizations are concerned cat cafes may not be the best environments for the felines – that they create stressful environments that are constantly changing as people come and go.
But for Farnham, Purrs has been successful. Since they opened two-and-half-years ago, they’ve had more than 15,000 visitors, some international, from places like Ireland and France, and more than 700 adoptions.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Two kitties hanging out on a table by a window in “Give Purrs A Chance.”
“We think we have a tremendously positive image for West Virginia, that we’ve attracted so many people from so many states that come specifically just to play with some of the cats here,” Farnham said.
In an emailed statement from the ASPCA, the organization said places like cat cafes and kitten pop-ups “increase the visibility of cats in need” and “generally help to reduce the time it takes for an animal to find a loving home.”
And for the cats themselves, Farnham said he believes having a free range environment gives cats the ability to live freely and happily until they find their forever home.
