Sawmills, Storm Fund Squabbles And The Solar Eclipse, This West Virginia Week

On this West Virginia Week, residents celebrated the end of Ramadan and a solar eclipse, while state officials squabbled over state emergency funds related to last week’s storms.

On this West Virginia Week, West Virginia residents were united by Monday’s solar eclipse, spreading out across college campuses and community parks to observe the astronomical event.

Meanwhile, decision-making over last week’s storms has proven more divisive among state officials.

We’ll dive into these topics, plus changes to a pair of West Virginia sawmills, how Muslim residents celebrated the end of Ramadan, and the much-anticipated return of the American chestnut to Appalachia.

Jack Walker is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

Workers At 2 Allegheny Wood Products Mills Could Get A Reprieve

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia last week approved the sale of sawmills in Randolph and Greenbrier counties to a Pennsylvania flooring company.

Workers at two Allegheny Wood Products sawmills could get a reprieve after a federal judge approved the sale of those operations.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia last week approved the sale of sawmills in Randolph and Greenbrier counties to a Pennsylvania flooring company.

AHF will purchase the two sites from a court-appointed receiver for $7.5 million.

Allegheny Wood Products shuttered its operations in late February. In early March, United Bank, of Fairfax, Virginia, filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking $40.5 million in damages for unpaid principal and interest.

The sale could benefit only a fraction of the 900 Allegheny Wood Products workers who lost their jobs in February.

A worker in Mercer County filed a lawsuit in federal court last month, seeking class action status, alleging the company failed to provide 60 days notice before laying off workers.

Such warnings are required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN.

Pardee Resources Sells West Virginia Sawmill to Hamer

Pardee Resources has sold a sawmill in West Virginia to The Jim C. Hamer Company.

Philadelphia-based Pardee announced the recent closure of the sale on Wednesday in a news release. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The company says Hamer also will have timber harvesting rights under a 10-year agreement on 62,000 acres of timberlands owned by Pardee near the sawmill in Curtin.

Kenova-based Hamer has operated the sawmill since 1984 under a lease. Pardee has owned the sawmill since 1955, when it was built.

Pardee president and CEO Carleton P. Erdman says in the release that continued ownership of the sawmill didn’t fit with the company’s strategy of owning and managing commercial timberlands.

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