Wyoming County Story Archives - Page 8 of 8 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Wyoming Co. School Deals with Unusable Water

While hundreds of thousands of West Virginians are going on five days without water, a school in Wyoming County has not had usable water since September.

The flushing process is underway but without an upgraded system, Herndon Consolidated and those on the Alpoca Water Works lines will have to wait even longer for usable tap water.

“It’s awful because I mean the water is brown and no one wants to wash their hands in brown water,” fifth grader Martina Sizemore said.

Rather than the water system owner, a PSD is working to fix the problem. It’s complicated and involves two public service districts, a small company, and a NASCAR driver.

Alpoca Water Works is a small company that supplies the water to the school and other communities such as Alpoca, and Bud. In a message, owner Rhesa Shrewsbury admitted that the water is bad but said that it’s only been bad for a couple months. Shrewsbury says it’s because the company no longer employs, or “lost” the water operator.

William Baisden with the Logan County PSD says his district is working “in good faith” to fix the water the old and dated system. Logan has assisted Wyoming County with water problems since a devastating flood in 2001 nearly destroyed the region.

Gallons of water are regularly stored in the kitchen area.

Logan PSD is acting on behalf of the Eastern Wyoming PSD.

Shrewsbury says her family is in the process of selling the company. But Baisden says it’s not a simple sell and the parties are trying to work out “ownership issues”. He says Alpoca Water Works leased the land from coal companies until the property was purchased by Nascar driver Greg Biffle.

Biffle didn’t immediately return our request for comment.

In the meantime, teachers have tried to create a non-disruptive learning environment by always having bottled water and hand sanitizer in the classroom.

Principal Virginia Lusk is hoping the issue is resolved soon.

“The staff here works so hard and everybody has just made it go as smooth as they can to make this work and to keep the kids safety and the sanitary conditions for the kids,” she said.

Okey Mills has taught at the school for more than 15 years.

A water dispenser replaces the water fountain in the hall at Herndon Consolidated.

“I’m surprised that many of their parents and people in the community haven’t complained more,” he said.

The flushing process is underway but Logan PSD says it could still take weeks to completely flush the system. There are no hydrants in the district which can be used to drain systems.

So for now, and since September, each faucet is running and toilets are flushed often in an effort to reach usable water.

Neighbor Helping Neighbor; West Virginians Setup Donation Stations

Residents are pitching in across the state to help out their fellow West Virginians. Churches, schools and even businesses have been collecting items for several days and sending to areas affected by the ban.

As the ban to use water is slowly lifted, several places in Wyoming County are still collecting items like baby wipes, diapers, formula, and of course … water.

“Go without water for a few days and you’ll just how much you miss that water,” Charlene Cook said.

Cook is the Director of Operations at the Mullens Opportunity Center. Cook says these items are meant to help those who remain without access to clean water, one of whom she ran into while in at a restaurant in Beckley.

“She was there in Raleigh County to buy water because she said she stood in line for eight hours for a gallon of water and my heart just broke for her,” she said.

Cook says donations are also meant to help those carrying a financial burden during this time. Some businesses have been closed for almost four days.

Cook remembers all too well what it’s like to be without water. Mullens has been rebuilding since massive a massive flood in 2001.

“So we know what it’s like to have people to reach out to us,” she said. “We’ve been through the boil water advisories.”

In Wyoming County donations are being accepted at the Brenton Community Church, Oceana New Life Church, Pineville Family Resource Network and the Mullens Opportunity Center.

The supplies will be picked up after there is enough to fill a truck. Contact Wyoming County family Resource Network for more information.

Lumberjackin Bluegrassin Jamboree celebrates 31 years

The Lumberjackin’ Bluegrassin’ Jamboree took full swing earlier this month at Twin Falls State Park. The annual event includes speed competitions,…

The Lumberjackin’ Bluegrassin’ Jamboree took full swing earlier this month at Twin Falls State Park. The annual event includes speed competitions, vendors, and bluegrass music.

Three school clubs from Penn State, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia University competed in various team events such as a log roll, cross cutting, chainsaw, bolt splitting and chopping. The students’ participation exposes them to the timber industry.

Twin Falls Activity Coordinator, Brian Danford, oversaw the student competition.

“All these students are learning how to, basically what people did in the olden days because they used cross cut saws and hand axes because, to fell trees,” Danford said. “Now days it’s more mechanized and they have chainsaws and everything else in order to get the wood out. But we want to teach them the culture so and get them some good competition.”

The co-ed teams competed for most of the day. There were male, female and co-ed events, including the jack and jill competition, where a male and female crosscut saw team would go against a team from another school.

The jamboree celebrated its 31st year. It’s a community event that focuses on the importance of the timber industry in West Virginia.

According to the West Virginia Forestry Association, the industry contributes just over $3 billion dollars to the state’s economy. Traditionally, timber ranks as one of West Virginia’s largest major industries following coal.

When the western Virginia, now West Virginia, virgin forests were discovered, they were filled with large trees, some reaching heights of 140 feet and 27 feet in diameter, which included oak, maple, poplar and the American Chestnut.

The chestnuts were killed off in the early 20th century by a fungus. Efforts are currently underway by the American Chestnut Foundation to restore the tree. Other trees under attack include the state’s hardwoods by the gypsy moth and hemlock trees by the hemlock woolly adelgid. The West Virginia Department of Agriculture is working to combat the adelgid through chemicals and natural predators. But Amanda Cadle who was watching the competition, shared a unique way of replanting hemlock trees, which she learned from a family friend.

“And so my friend, wanting to preserve the memory of his father,” she explained, “took his idea and cut some branches off of that tree right after they cut it. Probably about the size of a seedlin, you know about this big around. You just take a hatchet and you just kinda split the end and you just plant it in fertile soil.”

Cadle added that soaking the branches in water before planting them is helpful. She says her technique is working. However, her trees are in an isolated area away from the adelgid’ at a lower elevation and therefore in a somewhat protected environment. Whether or not her technique will work in other locations remains to be seen.

In addition to the lumberjack and jill competition, the Lumberjackin’ Bluegrassin’ Jamboree held a variety of other attractions including vendor’s arts and crafts, bluegrass music, square dancing, and hayrides.

The three day jamboree usually hosts around 3,500 visitors.

This year, Penn State came in First, WVU second, and Virginia Tech came in third.