The following Putnam County-related news and feature items were among those published in recent editions of The Charleston Gazette, Charleston Daily Mail, Saturday Gazette-Mail and Sunday Gazette-Mail:
Early Veterans Day honors military; 200 attend pre-holiday celebration
After being introduced to a crowd in Putnam County and hearing a list of his accomplishments, Hershel "Woody" Williams joked that he must be pretty old to have done all that.
The 86-year-old, who is West Virginia's only living Medal of Honor winner, was the keynote speaker at an early Veterans Day celebration on the steps of the county's judicial building in Winfield on Nov. 8.
Putnam officials for the second year decided to have their annual celebration a few days before the holiday to drum up a bigger crowd to pay tribute to the military and all veterans.
"We do it on the Sunday before because people usually have to work on Veterans' Day," said County Commissioner Joe Haynes, a Navy veteran. "By 2 p.m. on Sunday we're not interfering with anything because church is usually over by then."
(Charleston Daily Mail)
Not paying bills
'grandstanding,'
Hurricane mayor says
A decision two weeks ago by members of the Hurricane City Council not to pay the city's bills was an attempt at "political grandstanding" and potentially illegal, the city's mayor said on Nov. 10.
The three council members who voted two weeks ago not to pay this month's bills met about 20 minutes before the Nov. 2 meeting to discuss the agenda and the city's bills, Mayor Scott Edwards said.
That meeting was a violation of the state's Sunshine Law, Edwards said.
"Two or more members of a governing body cannot get together and discuss what is on the agenda, and you cannot deliberate about it," he said.
"He can say whatever he likes, but that is not true," Council member Lana Call responded.
In a special meeting on Nov. 9, City Council members unanimously voted to pay the city's bills, following the 3-2 vote two weeks ago not to pay them.
Council members Call, Patty Hager and Donald Chaney had voted against paying the bills, citing questions about the amount of money the city is spending.
"When we're sent our agendas every month, we only see a copy of the bills that are left to be paid," Call said. "We do not see a total list of the bills."
Call, Hager and Chaney, who were elected in 2007, met before the meeting to look at a list of expenses that had been paid for a new concession stand in Hurricane City Park, Call said.
The bill was not listed specifically on the agenda, and Hager had obtained a copy of it from city hall to share with council members.
Edwards was not in attendance at the Nov. 2 meeting, but in Atlanta on a business trip.
Edwards became aware that Call, Hager and Chaney met before the Nov. 2 meeting from a photo e-mailed to him.
At the Nov. 9 meeting, Edwards asked the three council members if they held a meeting prior the Nov. 2 meeting. They denied having done so.
At which point, Edwards produced the photo of Call, Hager and Chaney together, holding a copy of that night's agenda and the bills they voted against paying.
"A picture is worth a thousand words," Edwards said.
When confronted with the photo, the council members admitted to having met to discuss the agenda and the issue of the bills, but said it was not a meeting, Edwards said.
"The crowd went absolutely berserk when they said that," he said.
About 100 people attended the Nov. 9 meeting, and several asked the council members to resign, which they declined to do.
Call said the meeting was an attack on the council members.
"I'm 53 years old," Call said. "I have never witnessed anybody do that kind of character assassination in public."
Council members also did not ask any questions about the bills they voted against paying, before voting 6-0 to pay them.
"They spoke about things, but none of them ... not one of them had any discussion about the bills that a week ago they had questions about," Edwards said.
But Call said council members didn't ask questions because Edwards monopolized the meeting.
"The mayor took it over," Call said. "He was so irate from the onset, he didn't even do the Pledge of Allegiance. That's the way it started and that's the way it ended."
Edwards said he has not discussed pursuing charges against the council members who may have violated the state's Sunshine Law.
"We haven't made up our minds, and we haven't really explored it," he said.
(The Charleston Gazette)
Judge OKs teacher groups', state agency's inclusion in lawsuit
A Putnam County judge has approved a request from two teacher organizations and a state agency to be included in a lawsuit challenging a West Virginia law that cost the former basketball coach at Winfield High School his job.
Circuit Judge Phillip Stowers issued an order on Nov. 12 to allow the West Virginia Education Association, the state American Federation of Teachers and the state Board of Education to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of the Putnam County Board of Education.
Stowers agreed with the intervening organizations that the county BOE did not fully represent their interests in the lawsuit.
Paul Sutherland, former coach of the Winfield High School girls basketball team, filed the lawsuit in Putnam Circuit Court against the county BOE in June. Sutherland lost his job because of a state law that directs a county board of education to hire certified teachers for coaching positions over individuals without a certificate.
Sutherland had been head coach of the basketball team for eight years, until a certified teacher applied for the position. As mandated in state law, the county BOE hired the teacher and did not renew Sutherland's contract.
Stowers ruled in favor of the state board's argument that it "has a right to protect its interest in maintaining uniformity and compliance with the laws enacted by the Legislature."
If the law is found unconstitutional, it will affect coaching positions across the state, Stowers states in his order.
(The Charleston Gazette)
Ex-employee at
Putnam nursing home alleges drug violations
A former employee of Broadmore Estates has sued the Putnam County assisted-living facility for allegedly overlooking alcohol and substance abuse by its employees, and ignoring state regulations for drug distribution.
Lynn Gomez of Elkview filed the lawsuit in Putnam County Circuit Court on Nov. 12 against Broadmore and the facility's director, Delores Miles.
Gomez alleges in her lawsuit that she was ostracized and lost her job because of several complaints she brought to Miles about drug abuse and employee conduct.
Gomez was hired in February as a registered nurse and as director of wellness at Broadmore's assisted-living facility in Hurricane. Her position was eliminated in May, according to the lawsuit.
When she began working, Gomez alleges, Broadmore's patient charts and medical records were in disarray, the facility was understaffed and staff members did not follow state regulations for drug distribution.
She also alleges that, within her first few weeks at Broadmore, she was approached by a staff member and a pharmaceutical representative about a nurse who consistently came to work drunk or with alcohol on her breath.
Gomez alleges that the nurse approached her and stated "Lortabs do nothing for her and that she had already had four Percocet that day."
Gomez states that she approached Miles about the woman's statement and was told the nurse "had been on drugs for a long period of time, and could practice while on the medications." She also was told the nurse had been off work for a medical condition, the lawsuit states.
Gomez alleges that the nurse falsified patient charts, saying she had administered drugs that she actually had not, and that Miles falsified documents to reflect that the drugs had been properly administered and were accounted for.
The nurse eventually was fired after an outside pharmaceutical representative discovered that the nurse had falsified drug distribution records, the lawsuit states.
Gomez wants back pay, compensation for emotional and mental stress and attorney's fees.
(The Charleston Gazette)
Bank sues Scott Depot woman for $50,000
mistakenly put in her account
City National Bank has filed a lawsuit against a Scott Depot woman to collect $50,000 that bank officials mistakenly put in her account more than a year ago.
City National put $50,000 in Teresa Sperandio's savings account in June 2008, and did not realize their mistake until March 2009, according to the lawsuit filed in Putnam County Circuit Court on Nov. 5.
Over a 10-month period, Sperandio spent about $33,384 of the $50,000 put in her account, according to the suit.
In March, City National debited her account for the remaining $11,146 in addition to a $2,188 tax refund, the suit states.
The bank asks in its suit for the remaining $31,194, in addition to interest and attorney's fees.
According to the lawsuit, Sperandio did not start to spend the money in her savings account until November 2008, nearly six months after the bank put it in her account.
On Nov. 10, 2008, she transferred $5,000 from her savings to her checking account.
Two weeks later, she withdrew $20,000 from the saving account and wrote a cashier's check for that amount to Eagle Research Corp., an electronics company based out of Hurricane, where she worked as the bookkeeper.
An employee at Eagle Research said the check was payment for money Sperandio owed the company, and that she left the company in July.
From December 2008 to February 2009, she made three more withdrawals of $4,000, $3,000 and $16,000, until City National realized their mistake in March.
(The Charleston Gazette)
Quilt Trail Program
extending into county
The Putnam County Courthouse will be the first county location to participate in the Quilt Trail program that is extending into the area.
County commissioners on Nov. 10 approved a request from Jackie Byars of the Great Kanawha Resource Conservation and Development office to put the 8-foot-by-8-foot quilt square on the courthouse's front lawn.
Commissioners also approved a request for $250 to make the square.
The painted square is an extension of Quilt Trail from Mason County. The program is also in effect in about 21 other states and is used as a tool to pull residents and visitors off the highway and into more rural parts of a county.
For more information about the Quilt Trail Program, call 304-776-5256.
(The Charleston Gazette)
Poca man sentenced
in ID theft case
A Poca man was sentenced Nov. 9 in federal court to two years in prison for aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.
Justin Bailey, 21, pleaded guilty to the charge in August.
Bailey used the name and identification of another person to apply online for credit cards in March and April 2008, according to the news release. Bailey ran up more than $10,000 in bogus charges.
Bailey also used the victim's identity to obtain bank loans and credit totaling more than $48,000.
As part of the sentence, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers ordered Bailey to pay restitution to the victims of his scheme.
(Charleston Daily Mail)
Commissioners settle
biscuit bet
At first glance, Putnam County commissioners appeared united, with both Joe Haynes and Garry Tillis sporting gold and blue West Virginia University letters.
But the WVU tie Haynes wore on Nov. 10 was just a sign that the Marshall University graduate was paying up on his breakfast-biscuit bet following his alma mater's football loss last month to the Morgantown rival.
It has become an annual tradition for the two commissioners to bet on their favorite team in the Coal Bowl, with the loser buying breakfast and taking a hit on his pride.
Haynes said he had been ready to pay up at the first meeting after the Oct. 17 game, thumping an aged biscuit on the commission desk. But Tillis missed that meeting.
Haynes produced a wrapped and presumably fresher breakfast biscuit for Tillis on Tuesday.
"This is a Thundering Herd biscuit," he claimed.
The bet before this year's game had a double whammy, requiring Haynes, if Marshall lost this year, to climb in the dunking tank at next summer's football tailgate party on Courthouse Hill.
The seasoned biscuit would be aged properly for that event, suggested Commissioner Steve Andes, a graduate of Ohio schools.
Haynes agreed. "I may save this for next year."
In a more serious vein, Terry Martin of the Regional Intergovernmental Council said the Small Cities Block Grant application for a proposed Hometown storm water project was denied. The next round of applications are due in March, and two public hearings must be held before then.
Commissioners scheduled the first of the two at their Dec. 8 meeting.
Martin also said the Jim/Bee Ridge water extension project will probably be completed next month. Customers have been hooking up as lines are complete, and funding is adequate to extend to 17 more users than originally planned. The project extends service to 70 potential customers with water from West Virginia American Water Co.
In other business, commissioners:
- Were informed the county had received a state grant of $64,680 for renovations of the front courthouse steps and another for $26,164 to purchase a new cruiser for the sheriff's department.
- Approved the addition of options to the employee deferred compensation program, similar to a 401(k) and available through the National Association of Counties. Employees can now borrow from their accounts and, depending on their investment in the program, hire a financial adviser. About 10 of the county's roughly 185 full-time employees participate in the program, which involves no county funds, administrator Brian Donat said.
(Charleston Daily Mail)
New library a 'big deal'
for Buffalo residents
The Putnam County bookmobile came to town only a couple times a month when Leah Higginbotham was a child in Buffalo.
So it was cause for celebration when a federally funded singlewide trailer was delivered as the town's own branch library.
"That was a big deal," said Higginbotham, a Buffalo Elementary teacher and town council member who now serves on the committee for a new library that's just been started.
"This is going to be a big deal, too," she said.
She has taken the assignment seriously, visiting with committee member Dave Melton new libraries in Poca, opened in 2001, and Eleanor, completed in 2007.
"If there was going to be a decent library, you should do your homework," Higginbotham said. "The librarians pointed out good ideas for how it should be."
The Poca and Eleanor branches also replaced aged, deteriorating and, for today's standards, incredibly small singlewide facilities that arrived in the 1980s.
Just 450 square feet, they simply were not designed to house all the books, public computers and the collections of audio-visual materials of today's libraries.
The recent addition of a high-speed connection at Buffalo for the two computers there has more people squeezing into the computer chairs that back up to nonfiction shelves, branch manager Becky Hamilton said. She'll have four computers in the new library.
The trailers simply were never intended to remain in use for decades, county library director Jackie Chaney said.
"They anticipated you would have a permanent building in 10 years," Chaney said.
The brick library now under construction in Buffalo will be 1,920 square feet with a community meeting room and children's area.
Four times the size of the existing facility, the new building will have with six-inch exterior walls and better insulation.
The singlewide has little insulation and required staff to put heating tape around the water pipes just to prevent freezing.
"I don't anticipate a huge jump in utilities," Chaney said. The town pays those bills and maintains the grounds.
The council has wanted to replace the trailer for some time and had even looked at building onto town hall, Mayor Kenneth Tucker said.
"The town couldn't afford it," he said.
Footers were poured two weeks ago, and last week Wilks was instructing and assisting two AmeriCorps volunteers in setting the corner pins and stretching line for the blocks.
"I'm a mentoring supervisor," he said. "It is a teaching thing."
Students in Roy Lyons' computer-aided drafting class at the technical center prepared the plans. The design, which the library committee requested, is to look like a one-room school.
Technical center students studying masonry, electrical work, plumbing and construction also are involved.
"It's real-world experience," Lyons said.
Once the students have the first wall constructed and trucked to the site, Wilks tentatively plans a major event.
"We didn't do a ground breaking. Once the first wall is set, we'll have an official building kick-off day," he said. That's when the politicians, community leaders, businesses and other residents will be invited, and perhaps donations or pledges will be committed, as well.
Wilks said his goal is to have the library completed by Buffalo Heritage Days late next May.
Moving in will mark the sixth major relocation for director Chaney, who said she vowed after the fourth never to move a library again.
"It comes back to haunt you," she said.
Her first experience was as a college student, the second as a volunteer when the Hurricane branch moved to its new facility, followed by two moves as librarian at Nitro and Buffalo high schools, and the fifth when Eleanor moved. Because of help from the National Guard, the last was the easiest, she said.
"If there is something I have a lot of experience with, it's moving a library," Chaney said.
"But it is just so exciting to get a much nicer building. It's worth the trouble."
(Charleston Daily Mail)
U.S. 35 pulls business
from Fraziers Bottom
Residents of Fraziers Bottom expected to see a drop in traffic and business with the opening of the new U.S. 35 through Putnam County, but not to the extent that they have experienced.
"We can stand here for hours and no one comes by," said Christine Bennett of Caldwell Greenhouses in Fraziers Bottom.
"[U.S. 35] opened on June 15, and the first two weeks we really didn't see a drop in traffic, because people didn't know how to get on the new road," Bennett said.
Once the road became more well known, business dropped off, Bennett said. "Now people don't know how to get to Fraziers Bottom."
The town is about half a mile from U.S. 35 off Hurricane Creek Road.
"But you wouldn't know it," Bennett said.
There are no markers or signs on U.S. 35 or at the Hurricane Creek exit that indicate where the town is, she said.
"They've left us off the map," she said.
Fraziers Bottom sits along the old U.S. 35 - now W.Va. 817 - about a mile from Buffalo.
Bennett has run Caldwell Greenhouse for about 10 years. The store specializes in flowers, organic foods and Amish bulk goods. Charlie Caldwell owns the property, and has run the greenhouse and farm for about 40 years.
Next month, for the first time in six years, Bennett and Caldwell are considering closing the shop for the winter because business is so slow.
Violet Hendrix, owner of Yesteryear Antiques in Fraziers Bottom, plans to do the same. It will be the first time she has closed the store in the winter since she and her husband opened it in 1965.
Hendrix said her business is fairly established in the antiques world and dealers have frequently sought out her shop.
Dealers don't know how to get to the town now, Hendrix said.
The signs on the new U.S. 35 tell drivers the name of the roads that intersect the highway, but not where they lead, she said.
"They don't have them marked," she said. "Even local people are getting lost on it."
Adding to the confusion is the renaming of the old U.S. 35 to W.Va. 817, and the lack of signs informing drivers of the name change, Bennett said.
"Nowhere on that road does it say you are in Fraziers Bottom and on the old U.S. 35," she said.
The problem also goes both ways. Many drivers in Fraziers Bottom don't know how to get to the new highway from the town.
"It does not say anywhere around here how to get to the new U.S. 35," Bennett said.
The state Department of Transportation has put up a blue "Services - Attractions" sign at the Hurricane Creek Road exit off U.S. 35 for business owners to advertise what is available at that exit.
But it will cost about $1,000 for a business owner to put the name of their company on the sign.
"To get your company name on that you need a three-year paid-in-advance contract for $350 a year," Bennett said.
That's in addition to money out of pocket to have the sign made, and about $200 to have it put up, she said.
It's too much money, especially for a small business, Hendrix said.
Hendrix and her husband have decided not to have Yesteryear Antiques put on the service and attraction sign. They plan instead to advertise in a national antique magazine.
"Businesses in the area were thriving, and had a strong customer base, but now no one knows where we are," Bennett said. "I get so upset and so mad at [the DOT] for not thinking it through."
Susie Stover, manager of the 7-Eleven at the Marathon gas station in Fraziers Bottom, said her company plans to advertise on the sign and has high hopes it will pull in drivers from the highway.
The gas station is located directly next to Hurricane Creek Road and less than half a mile from U.S. 35.
Since the opening of the new highway less than six months ago, Stover said sales have dropped by more than half.
"Everyone takes the new road now," she said.
The majority of her customers now are local residents, employees of the Toyota plant in Buffalo and contractors at the John Amos Power Plant outside of Winfield.
"It's a good store and a good location, but they only stop here if they have to," Stover said.
(The Charleston Gazette)
Toyota workers
file complaint
Workers at the Toyota Motor Corp. plant in Buffalo have filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, saying they're being denied the right to pass out union literature.
The complaint was filed on Nov. 6 at the federal agency's regional office in Cincinnati.
Toyota employees Tim Smith and Richard Snyder say they were denied permission to distribute union literature during break periods.
Mitch Weese, human resources director for the Buffalo plant, says the company has no immediate comment on the complaint.
But Weese says company policy does restrict the distribution of literature to non-work times and non-work areas.
The engine and transmission plant in Buffalo employs 1,050 people.
(Charleston Daily Mail)
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Two teacher organizations, state agency ask to be included in lawsuit
Two teacher organizations and a state agency have filed motions to be included in a Putnam County lawsuit challenging a state law that the former basketball coach of Winfield High School claims cost him his job.
Paul Sutherland, former coach of the Winfield High School girls' basketball team, filed the suit in Putnam Circuit Court against the county Board of Education in June.
Sutherland lost his job because of a state law that directs a county board of education to hire certified teachers for coaching positions over individuals without a certificate.
Last month, the West Virginia Education Association, the state American Federation of Teachers and the state Board of Education filed motions to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of the Putnam County Board of Education, because they claim the county board does not fully represent their interests.
Putnam County Circuit Court Judge Phillip Stowers held hearings on the matter on Oct. 21 and Nov. 4. Stowers was expected to make a ruling on the interventions last week.
The state BOE has also requested the lawsuit be transferred to Kanawha County Circuit Court.
In response, Sutherland argues none of the entities had a role in the Putnam County board's decision not to renew Sutherland's contract.
"The petitioners merely have an ancillary or incidental interest in the outcome of this case," but as required by law have not shown "direct and substantial" interest, Sutherland's response states.
Earlier this year, Stowers ruled against a motion from the Putnam County Board of Education to include the state BOE in the lawsuit as an indispensable party.
The state board's motion to intervene is an attempt to "take a second bite of the apple," states Sutherland's response to the WVBOE's most recent motion.
The state AFT claims Sutherland's lawsuit may have an adverse effect on current teachers across the state.
"At this time, teachers are not represented in this case. Yet, this case directly impacts the right of teachers," according to a motion from the AFT to intervene in the lawsuit.
The position taken by [Sutherland] ... seeks to strip teachers of well-established employment rights to the detriment of many of its members," according to the AFT motion.
The WVBOE asks to be included because "the only party capable of protecting the interest of the State Board is the Board," according to a motion in support of the WVBOE.
The WVBOE also argues the Legislature enacts laws but is not charged with enforcing them. That is the duty of other agencies, and in this case, it is the WVBOE.
"The Board is charged with enforcement of the statute and the rules and therefore has a vital interest in this proceeding," the motion states.
The WVBOE also says if the state law is ruled unconstitutional in Putnam County, it "would create a logistical nightmare for the enforcement of the rules of the Board throughout the state, and the SSAC's rule in the other 54 counties."
If the law is ruled unconstitutional, the county BOE may not appeal the ruling because of public sentiment for Sutherland that members of the county board may feel will affect their chances for reelection, the motion states.
Sutherland had been head coach of the basketball team for eight years, with a record of 159 wins and 43 loses. Under his tenure, the team advanced to the state AA tournament six times, and took home two championship wins, the suit states.
In the eight years prior to Sutherland taking over the coaching position in 2000, the girls' basketball team had a record of 60 wins and 114 losses, and had not attended the state tournament since 1990, according to the suit.
Under the current state law a county board of education must show hiring preference to a certified teacher for coaching positions, "without regard for the non-teacher's current position, qualifications, seniority, success or tenure," Sutherland's suit states.
"Even a teacher with no playing or coaching experience, training or qualification must be hired over the non-teacher under state law," Sutherland's suit states.
(The Charleston Gazette)