News Articles

The Morgan County Partnership was recently awarded a $77,313 2007 substance abuse prevention implementation grant. The Morgan County Commission will be the fiscal agent for the grant. Some 11 other counties received the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) substance abuse prevention grants, which totaled $848,561.

The grant will fund a full-time project director, a full-time prevention community educator, a full-time master's level prevention clinician for a school-based health center and a part-time evaluator. The money will also partially fund a teen coordinator at the Boys and Girls Club and provide promotional and curriculum materials, training and a teen issues day planned for August.

At a Monday morning meeting about the water project, Bath Town Council members decided to seek assistance from U.S. Silica on upgrades to the town-owned water system.

Mayor Susan Webster said U.S. Silica added another work shift recently, causing water usage at the plant to go up dramatically.

Berkeley Springs native David Banks became the county's next school superintendent at the May 1 meeting of the Morgan County School Board.

School officials voted unanimously to offer the position to Banks, who is currently serving as assistant superintendent under David Temple. Temple will leave his post at the end of June after four years as head of county schools.

A group of Morgan County residents have petitioned the County Commission to allow citizens to vote on the plans to build a $12.7 million County Courthouse complex.

The residents felt that the building was far beyond anything that the county could afford. They suggested other options such as using space at War Memorial Hospital for county offices once the new hospital was built. That might not be until two or three years from now, noted County Commissioner Glen Stotler.

FEDERAL OFFICIALS ARE CITING THE OWNERS of a Berkeley Springs property for filling in about half an acre of wetland without a permit. Karen Auer, spokesperson for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh, told The Morgan Messenger on Monday that the notice of violation was to be sent soon.

The property at the northern edge of town is owned by Mayor Susan Webster and her husband, Peter Moss, according to West Virginia officials who took part in the investigation.

The Morgan County Commission took no action on their plans to redistrict the county magisterial districts. The redistricting issue was on the agenda for discussion and action at their Friday, May 4 meeting.

Commissioner Glen Stotler said that they needed to look at the polls, census maps and block maps before making any decision. They couldn't split a block or have more than 10% deviation between the smallest and largest district, he said.

A Town of Bath delegation asked the Morgan County Commission to revisit the possibility of combined county and municipal facilities in the future Morgan County Courthouse complex.

Town of Bath Mayor Susan Webster, Town Councilman and Finance Committee chairperson David Crosby, Town Councilwoman Nancy Harvey and Town Recorder and Finance Committee member Garnet Marsh were there to present the town's case for combined facilities.

When they met on Monday, May 7, the Bath Town Council scheduled two special meetings.

The first - on Monday, May 14 at 5:30 p.m. – is to discuss the possible inclusion of town offices in the new courthouse.

The Morgan County Commission will address plans to redistrict the county magisterial districts. The issue is on the agenda for discussion and action at their Friday, May 4 meeting.

The redistricting question arose when County Commissioner Tommy Swaim unknowingly moved out of Magisterial District 3, which he represents, and into Magisterial District 2 when he built a new home a few miles south of where he had previously lived. Swaim's new home is around 200 yards from his original district, he said.

A feud between two men turned violent on Tuesday evening, April 24, when one man kicked in an apartment door and beat the male occupant unconscious at the Wayside Inn, south of Berkeley Springs.

David Glenn "Hillbilly" Mayberry, 44, of Hedgesville was arrested and charged with felony counts of malicious assault and burglary.