SHEPHERDSTOWN — The Shepherdstown Town Council’s monthly meeting was held on May 10, during which a number of topics were discussed, ranging from Paint the Town Purple Week to the upcoming municipal election.

Two write-in Town Council candidates for the Shepherdstown Municipal Election, Leah Rampy and James Vigil, introduced themselves at the beginning of the meeting, as Mayor Jim Auxer reminded attendees of the upcoming election at Town Hall on June 7, from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The other four candidates for the five Town Council seats are incumbents: Jenny Haynes, Marty Amerikaner, Chris Stretch and Cheryl Roberts. Incumbents Auxer and Town Recorder Lori Robertson are running unopposed.

The first agenda item, after the approval of the prior meeting’s minutes, was an update on the Dog Fest celebration in downtown Shepherdstown on June 11, from noon to 6 p.m.

“We . . . yesterday mapped out where [Dog Fest] is going to take place in this one block north of King Street here between German and the alleyway,” said organizer Steve Pearson. “No need to close German Street! We’re just going to be self-contained within this one block here.”

The Dog Fest beer garden, approved by the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration, will be fenced in and have a controlled seating area, according to Pearson. The Shepherdstown Volunteer Fire Department will likely also be at the festival, selling food to raise funds for maintenance costs.

“I have a meeting with the fire department . . . to form the logistics of their food service: hotdogs, hamburgers, whatever they want to serve. We thought it would be a good fundraising event for them,” Pearson said, mentioning four bands, 10 dog-related vendors, along with six dog rescues, had been approved so far, for inclusion in the festival.

More than one community member spoke up at the meeting, in agreement with concerns the Town Council voiced, over a proposal from the West Virginia Department of Natural Resource. District Fishers Biologist Brandon Keplinger, on behalf of the WVDNR, which maintains Shepherdstown’s boat ramp into the Potomac River, emailed the town to consider partnering with them to pave over the east side of Town Run in Riverfront Park and construct a vehicular bridge “across Town Run to reach a dedicated parking area for the site for boaters and riverside anglers.”

“They said parking was an issue, and I asked them about this and they thought we should have more parking because they may want to have fishing tournaments,” Auxer said, mentioning it would essentially eliminate the existence of the park.

Auxer also noted the town’s signed lease renewal agreement for the boat ramp had not been returned yet by WVDNR, likely due to uncertainty over the town’s response to the proposal.

“What I’d like from the council, is I’d like to hear a motion for me to author a letter to Mr. Keplinger, saying that the Shepherdstown Town Council feels that this is not a project that we would consider entertaining,” Auxer requested, to which he received a unanimous positive response from the council members.

Another agenda item unanimously approved by the Town Council, was for the mayor to sign and return the West Virginia Local Government Election and Release Form and the West Virginia First Memorandum of Understanding to Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Shepherdstown, with this paperwork submitted under the Endo/Par West Virginia State-Wide Opioid SettlementAgreement, will be eligible to receive a portion of the $6 million settlement from pharmaceutical supply chain participants for local governments to end the state’s opioid epidemic.

“The only thing that might happen is we might not get anything,” Auxer said of the settlement.

The final item unanimously approved by the Town Council for Auxer to sign, was the Jefferson County Paint the Town Purple Proclamation. With the signed proclamation, the Corporation of Shepherdstown would be recognizing the week of June 4-11, 2022, as Paint the Town Purple Week. The proclamation, according to Relay for Life of Jefferson County, will hopefully encourage community members to decorate with purple cancer awareness ribbons, start/join a Relay for Life team, donate to Relay for Life and attend the Relay for Life event at T.A. Lowery Elementary School on the final day of the week, beginning at 4 p.m.