Community News

Those stories about finding a valuable treasure in a box of junk at an auction aren't just myths, according to auctioneer Paul McBride.

It would seem that Jim McCoy was never one to shy away from the limelight. Now the Highland Ridge native, veteran country musician and recording artist has grabbed center stage as the subject of a new book.

Joltin' Jim, written by Morgan Messenger editor John Douglas, is a biography of McCoy's long career behind the microphone, a history of country music, and a tribute to those who played the music around here.

Attorney General Darrell McGraw is warning consumers about a "hitman" email that was sent to a consumer in West Virginia.

The message threatened that an assassin would kill the recipient unless he paid the hitman large amounts of money.

The CSX Railroad has begun construction of a $58,000 chain link fence around the 3.37-acre lot they own behind the train depot at Williams and Washing-ton Streets in Berkeley Springs.

County Administrator Bill Clark said CSX has hired a company to do an environmental study of the site as a prelude to a soil reclamation project. CSX must make the property environmentally safe before the property can be used or sold.

The Morgan County unit of the Boys & Girls Club of the Eastern Panhandle just keeps growing.

Some 105 children and 35 teen volunteers attended the 10-week summer program, said Boys & Girls Club unit director Chris Risinger at the August 24 Morgan County Commission meeting.

Blankets, pillows, coolers and toys for restless tots were all part of watching movies at the drive-in on a warm summer night.

Gwendolyn Everett Pierce and her daughter Adair Pierce Kleiss remember the days when their family ran the StarVue Drive-in Theater off Johnson Mill Road in Berkeley Springs.

Joe Lillard is one of the local volunteers being honored by the Berkeley Springs-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce. He will join the 49 members of the Apple Butter Festival Hall of Fame. Lillard will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a community luncheon on Wednesday, September 12, Noon at The Country Inn.

The afternoon will feature fun entertainment. The luncheon

(Reprinted from The Morgan Messenger, May 24, 2000)

Part Two

Amanda Kelly Knepper and Jason Olen Bittinger were married Saturday, June 16, 2007 at Rocky Gap State Park, Flintstone, Md. Rev. Edward Craft performed the double ring ceremony at the lake under a garden arbor adorned with calla lilies, white roses, stephanotis, cymbidium orchids and blue hydrangeas.

The bride is the daughter of Bob and Sherrie Knepper of Cherry Run and the granddaughter of Buddy and Evelyn Loudan, Berkeley Springs and Buford and Betty Knepper, also of Cherry Run and great-granddaughter of Lila Loudan of Martinsburg,

Hewett