On November 5 the Jefferson County Planning Commission rejected a proposal from Sidewinder LLC, which proposes to build a water bottling plant near the historic village of Middleway, to settle Sidewinder’s lawsuit against the Planning Commission. Commissioner Cara Keys moved to refuse to ...
West Virginia is a major producer of natural gas, and produces some oil as well. A byproduct of this industry is several thousand abandoned wells that have not been closed (“plugged” is the term of art). A couple of weeks ago Governor Patrick Morrisey announced a deal with Diversified ...
The Jefferson County Commission recently took up a proposal to eliminate the requirement that a “concept plan” be required for commercial development under our county’s zoning ordinance. Many spoke against this proposal. It would seriously gut the zoning ordinance, as the concept plan is ...
Several weeks ago, Governor Patrick Morrisey sent a few hundred members of the West Virginia National Guard to patrol Washington, D.C., at the request of President Donald Trump. I strongly oppose the governor’s action, as policing is not a proper role for soldiers, and those soldiers are ...
In a special edition of this column last week, we discussed the process by which the Jefferson County Commission suddenly and precipitously dissolved the Jefferson County Development Authority and summarily fired all it members. But what kind of Development Authority might we want? State law ...
On July 8, suddenly and without warning, the Jefferson County Commission summarily fired all 15 members of the Jefferson County Development Authority. Why did the commissioners take this action? Apparently, because they could. Were the requirements of West Virginia’s open meetings law ...
After the massive flooding that devastated much of West Virginia in 2016, the Legislature established the Flood Resiliency Fund. The Flood Resiliency Fund was created so that West Virginia would be prepared to immediately aid people who experienced killer floods in the future, but the ...
For the umpteenth time, the West Virginia Legislature adjourned a session without authorizing “locality pay.” West Virginia, unlike most states, has no provision for differences in pay for teachers, troopers and other state or school workers based on differences in regional cost-of-living. ...
Governor Patrick Morrisey wasn’t able to pass much of his agenda, during the recently completed regular session of the Legislature. But his one major success was the passage of HB 2014, the so-called “microgrid” bill. I think HB 2014 doesn’t bode well for Jefferson County. A ...
The Jefferson County Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) ruled on Jan. 23 that a business located between the Cavaland subdivision and the Shepherdstown Battlefield could have a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to sell, manufacture and test firearms on its property. The vote was 2-1 (the BZA is a ...