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This Week from Charleston

By Staff | Jul 5, 2013

I want to thank everyone involved in another successful Streetfest. A long time ago, I was involved in a small part in the development of Streetfest. The original idea was that Streetfest was a great way to energize Shepherdstown the weekend before the Contemporary American Theater Festival began and therefore create an additional weekend for tourists to come to town. It is an understatement to say that the Streetfest has come a long, long way. Lori Robertson and Chris Stroech and all of the many volunteers have fine-tuned the organization and operations to showcase Shepherdstown in all of its uniqueness. The town residents and merchants are partners in the endeavor and deserve recognition for their part. Whoever was responsible for the weather last week gets kudos as well.

Of course this weekend is the opening weekend for another year of CATF. Friday night will be extra special because CATF will world premiere the new theater. This theater takes the place of the black box at Sara Cree. I can think back many years ago when Ed Herendeen told me about his idea for a new arts complex at Shepherd. It took an extraordinary amount of work and commitment The new Marinoff Theater in the new building is the culmination of that dream. The new complex is an example of a successful partnership between the university, a non-profit and the state. The beneficiaries are not just the patrons of the Festival, but the students and the public who will enjoy the building and its amazing spaces.

Please continue to contact me with your problems with Potomac Edison and FirstEnergy. Unfortunately, there seems to be a never-ending supply of billing problems from these folks. I spoke to one customer who told me that he filed a complaint with the PSC, and that the PSC had asked the customer and FirstEnergy if they would both agree to mediate the dispute. The customer agreed to the mediation, but FirstEnergy refused! At first, I could not believe that they would be so foolish. The customer showed me the document showing their refusal, though. I think it is safe to say that the road will be long till we get to the end of this shameful issue.