Dear Editor:
Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day for the 2014 Roadkill Cook-off and Autumn Harvest Festival in Marlinton, sponsored by the Pocahontas County Chamber of Commerce. With an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 people in attendance, it was a fantastic showcase day for Pocahontas County and the people that call her home. There were children’s activities, dog shows, 119 vendors lining the streets, absolutely great music by Mudhole Control, Jake Krack and the Bing Brothers, and Wyatt Turner and Jake Ryder and the band. We also had the second annual West Virginia Biscuit Bake-off, sponsored this year by Hudson Cream Flour and Elk River Inn and Restaurant. I saw so many people enjoying the festivities and heard nary a dissenting word about anything.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the myriad number of volunteers who work so hard to make this day the success that it is. Their dedication, and long hours standing in the streets, are the backbone of this operation, and made it a festival of which we can all be proud.
I also want to recognize a few people who work all year long to organize and plan this event. Their dedication to detail shows in the flawless execution of the event and the fantastic organization of the schedules, set up and tear down.
Ben Wilfong was this year’s Committee Chairman and did a fantastic job, along with his committee – Paula Garretson, who managed the cooks, Barbara Lay, who managed the volunteers, Malinda Meck and Selina King, who managed the orders, money and set-up, Linda Adams, who managed the vendors, and Linda Simmons, who managed the notices and kept us all sane.
These people did much more than what I’ve listed here. They worked together as a team and met every challenge. I’m so proud of you all. I want to thank Devin Preston for his efforts with the Possum Trot. So many people look forward to this race every year. I also want to thank Cara Rose for her work solely organizing the Biscuit Bake-off. It is such a great addition to the Roadkill Cook-off. Of course, without the help of the Convention and Visitors Bureau and Mayor Joe Smith and the Town of Marlinton, we couldn’t do what we do. The entire Chamber of Commerce Board, and each and every person who volunteered their time to this event is owed a great gratitude.
You should all stand proud of what you have accomplished.
Michael Holstine,
President
Pocahontas County
Chamber of Commerce
Dear Editor:
Pipeline! Here’s the reality: Duke/Dominion et al are going to get the gas because the federal government has decided to let them have it.
What the County Commission could do instead of jabbering about the horrors of eminent domain is to use their power as a subordinate governing body of the State of West Virginia to pass an ordinance in the public interest and safety forbidding the construction of the Dominion gas pipeline in Pocahontas County. What would then happen is Dominion would challenge the ordinance in court and eventually win.
When it becomes eminent domain time, property owners have the right to resist unfair compensa- tion through the court system asking for expenses and legal fees to be paid by Dominion.
These actions probably will not eliminate the inevitable but may significantly delay it.
“….courage, defeat and honorable death.” Ernest Hemingway
Sincerely,
Dick Evans
Hillsboro
Dear Editor:
On September 16, 2014, the date of a Pocahontas County Commissioner’s meeting, Lauren Ragland, myself and Dominion’s Mr. Orndorff held an impromptu pipeline discussion on the courthouse front lawn.
Mr. Orndorff stated that 70 percent of West Virginia natural gas is shipped to out of state markets. I wonder what 70 percent represents in U. S. dollars?
West Virginia’s wealth in natural resources – forest products, coal, natural gas – have proven a bonanza, yet why, oh, why does the governor and legislature claim the state’s budget in shortfall?
Dominion and affiliates billion dollar pipeline construction plans are being swiftly carried toward F.E.R.C. approval, however it is still in the pipe dream stage. Currently no natural gas “spigot” for a West Virginia market are in the design phase.
Dominion is using in- place public utility lines through the Mon Forest as a precedent for approval. Any further deforestation will prove too costly 100 years hence.
Alice M. Arbuckle
Hillsboro
Dear Editor:
So much more at Snowshoe.
The music was fabulous at the September 26-27 Gravity Series, the venue was not. Putting the crowd behind a chain link fence on the asphalt parking lot of Rimfire with a multitude of HID lights is not an intimate setting, for the musicians or the audience. Then combine that with an overbearing security force, who was kicking sleeping children off the grass next to the public road.
Just a few hundred yards away lies an ideal amphitheater-like setting. With Spruce Knob as the backdrop to the stage. Children would be sleeping on blankets while adults dance on the grass in a setting that is Pocahontas County.
Jeffrey C. Eisenbeiss
Renick, WV