10 Years Ago
Week of August 28, 2014
‘Gazette’ Story Tells
Allegheny Problems
The most widely circulated and influential daily newspaper in the state, “The Charleston Gazette,” dedicated some of the front page of its Sunday edition to a lengthy story about the perilous stretch of Rt. 33 on Allegheny Mountain.
The article was written by Eric Eyre, the “Gazette’s” award-winning lead investigative reporter.
Quoted in length in Eyre’s article are Delegate Isaac Sponaugle and Rick Gillespie, the former State Police captain and current vice-president of the board of education. Sponaugle contacted Eyre about the 21 tractor trailer crashes on the mountain since 2009. Four truck drivers perished in accidents either on Dead Woman’s Curve or in or near the Horseshoe Turn.
Eyre credits Gillespie for having begun a campaign for major roadway fixes by the state when he was a State Police officer and Jay Rockefeller was governor.
It was Rockefeller who in 1984 ordered a mandatory stopping place for trucks atop the mountain following an article in the “Gazette” about the sometimes deadly stretch of mountain roadway.
Eyre notes that Sponaugle along with Delegate Allen Evans and state Senators Greg Tucker and Clark Barnes as well as the county commission and the school board have renewed the campaign with the state Division of Highways for roadway improvements on the Pendleton County side of Allegheny.
Eyre points out that recent accidents have involved tractor trailer drivers from out of state who are unfamiliar with the road. Sponaugle observed that GPS devices “are steering more truckers to U.S. Rt. 33. It’s the shortest—but not the safest—route between Interstate 79 near Clarksburg and Interstate 81 near Harrisonburg, VA.”
“They just follow their GPS tracking system,” Sponaugle told Eyre. “They have no clue what they’re getting into coming off the mountain. By that time, their tractor trailer’s brakes are already overheated from the mountainous trip from Elkins.”
“Then,” Eyre wrote, “they hit Dead Woman’s Curve.”
Gillespie pointed out that “to the right is a several-hundred-foot drop off the side of the mountain. I have seen trucks plunge all the way down. They resemble an airplane crash.”
In the wake of two recent accidents, DOH officials announced plans to spend $120,000 on flashing signs on the Pendleton County side of Rt. 33 on the mountain.
Gillespie has asked the administration of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to direct DOH to “install a ‘CatchNet’ system, which uses springs and other metal components that snag runaway tractor trailers,” Eyre reported. “They work like the nets on aircraft carriers that slow down fighter jets. Wyoming’s highways division has installed the special nets, which cost about $300,000 each, on several mountainous highways.”
Eyre notes that the metal nets “can save trucks that weigh up to 90,000 pounds traveling at 90 miles per hour. The devices can be put back in service just hours after an accident.”
Gillespie also favors erection of a concrete wall that would stop runaway trucks from “vaulting over the mountainside at Dead Woman’s Curve.” “Enough studying,” Gillespie said to Eyre. “The time for action is now.”
Regular Exercise
Can Help Kids
Do Better in School
Physical activity may not be the first thing parents or teachers think about when they want to boost a child’s academic performance, but evidence supports the notion that a bit of exercise for the body is beneficial to the brain as well.
In fact, kindergartners who participated in Build Our Kid’s Success (BOKS) a free before-school program involving physical activity and nutrition education, had significantly improved memory skills as rated by teachers, compared to their peers who did not participate. A study of the children’s performance also concluded that those who participated in the program exhibited good behavior in the classroom.
“A sedentary life and poor eating habits can lower kids’ performance in the classroom and start a cycle of health problems later in life,” says Kathleen Tullie, founder and executive director of BOKS and the director of social responsibility for Reebok. “Simply stated, a healthy body and a healthy brain go hand in hand.”
30 Years Ago
Week of August 25, 1994
SUGAR GROVE
Dog Days Brought
40 Days of
Rainy Weather to Area
Dog days came to an end a week or so ago, however, it hasn’t been the end of our wet, humid weather. The old saying, “if dog days set in rainy, it will be wet until it ends forty days later” had more than a grain of truth this year. The hot, sticky days of mid summer continue through August. The old saying, “fog on the hill brings water to the mill” is a sure indication of more rain to come. Then as one hears the steady downpour of rain splashing on the roof, that saying, “rain before seven, over before eleven” didn’t hold true this past Wednesday—tremendously swollen streams flowed through our valley. Then again, some take stock in only one Indian weather sign for rain—“cloudy all around and pouring down in the middle.” We’ve sure had a lot of rain—and then some! Surely by now the hills have been scrubbed fresh and clean! Yes, and the garden goes on and on, with aggressive growth invading everything.
50 Years Ago
Week of August 29, 1974
Get Pennies
Into Circulation
Says Mint Director
I’m calling on every American, especially young people, to get the penny back in circulation and keep it there, Mrs. Mary Brooks, director of the Mint, said today.
The price of copper has retreated, closing at $1.10 per pound on May 24. There will be no aluminum penny. The 62 billion pennies produced during the past 15 years have no numismatic value and because of the huge mintage they will never attain great value.
Nevertheless, speculators and hoarders of pennies have caused what seems to be a shortage of pennies in certain areas of the country.
But there is no shortage of a supply of pennies.
Creating a shortage where it does not exist can adversely affect every public spirited citizen, taxpayer and conservator of the earth’s resources. It is inflationary should merchants start to round off sales to the next nickel due to lack of pennies to make change.
One billion pennies returned to the circulation will save the taxpayers $10,000,000.
60 Years Ago
Week of August 27, 1964
100 YEARS AGO
By LON K. SAVAGE
Editor’s Note—The following is one of a series of articles on the Civil War. Each weekly installment covers events which occurred exactly 100 years ago.
Lincoln Loses Hope
Of Being Reelected
Abraham Lincoln was in the depths of despair 100 years ago this week. As he admitted frankly—it appeared unlikely that he could be re-elected in November.
The Civil War now had dragged on for more than three years. Thousands upon thousands of young men from the North had gone South with the armies, there to be slaughtered in battle. What was there to show for it? Very little, many people thought.
Down around Richmond, Ulysses S. Grant—Lincoln’s great hope for victory—appeared to be stymied on the Petersburg defenses. He had gotten to Petersburg only at the cost of more than 50,000 lives, and it appeared as many more men would die before he could crack the line of the wily Confederate Robert E. Lee.
Down around Atlanta, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had fought all summer against the army of John B. Hood, but he could claim only that he had won a hundred or so miles of scarcely populated land.
True, the Western campaigns had been victorious, but that did not seem to stop the Confederacy’s operations.
In the North, people seemed sick of war. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, had written Lincoln August 9 asking that he invite peace proposals from the Confederacy. Nine-tenths of the people, Greeley said, were for peace on almost any terms.
Other newspapers agreed. Political observers in state after state predicted that Lincoln’s chances were all but gone. The only hope for Lincoln, many said, was that between then and election day, there be important success in battle.
So far, the Democrats had not nominated an opponent for Lincoln, but already it appeared the nomination would go to George Brinton McClellan, once Lincoln’s top general who now favored peace.
On August 23, Lincoln signed a memorandum, admitting his plight. The memorandum reads:
“This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the president-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such grounds that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.”
Lincoln sealed the memorandum, had it endorsed by several cabinet members and then added that it not be opened until after election day.
But Lincoln’s mood and his chances of re-election both were to brighten considerably within the next few days. For word then was coming north of the victory at Mobile Bay, and at Atlanta Sherman was on the verge of capturing one of the South’s most important cities. These two events would turn the tide.
Next week: Atlanta falls.
70 Years Ago
Week of August 26, 1954
County’s 31 School
Busses Ready To Roll
In Big $60,000 Operation
When school begins Monday Pendleton County’s fleet of 31 county owned school busses will be ready to roll.
Troopers Cunningham of Franklin and Stout of Elkins placed their stamp of approval on them last Wednesday when all the busses were brought in on the Franklin High School grounds for an inspection by the state police.
At the same time the busses were being inspected, the bus drivers were being given a written examination in the high school building by Cpl. Webley.
- R. Hammer, director of school transportation, said yesterday that approximately 1657 pupils will be transported to and from school in Pendleton County during the next term. This is more than 75 per cent of the total enrollment in the schools.
Mr. Hammer estimated that the busses will travel approximately 242,131 miles during the term, and will consume about 30,000 gallons of gasoline. Mr. Hammer added that school bus transportation in the county during the next year would cost approximately $60,000.
In addition to the 31 county owned busses, two other routes are operated by drivers who furnish their own busses.
The following is a list of the bus drivers who have been employed for the next school term and the routes which they will cover:
Ward Bowers, Onego to Circleville; Calvin Borror, Cave Mountain to Upper Tract; Dolph Day, Crummetts Run to Franklin; Russell Day, Harman Hills to Riverton; Warden Hartman, Hunting Ground to Circleville; Stanley Hedrick, Grant County line to Upper Tract; J. James Hevener, Borror to Franklin; Ray L. Judy, Upper North Fork to Circleville; Arlie Ketterman, Onego Community; Glen Ketterman, Grant County line to Circleville; Carl Kimble, Smoke Hole to Upper Tract; Ottis Kimble, Grant County line to Franklin; L. L. Lantz, Elk Mountain to Circleville; Carl Mitchell, Greenawalt Gap to Schmucker; Dewey H. Moyers, Reeds Creek to Franklin; Tommy Nesselrodt, Sweedlin Valley to Franklin; Allen Pitsenbarger, Egypt to Ft. Seybert; Vernon Propst, Jack Mountain to Sugar Grove; H. C. Puffenbarger, Stony Run to Sugar Grove; Owen J. Raines, Germany Valley to Circleville; Allen Rexrode, Corner to Brandywine; Warren Rexrode, Moyers to Sugar Grove; Wilbur Sevier, Moyers to Franklin; Garland Sheffer, Brushy Fork to Sugar Grove; Arvid M. Simmons, Dickenson Mountain to Franklin; Edgar Simmons, E. Dry Run to Franklin; L. Paul Simmons, Dolly to Riverton; Raymond Simmons, Ft. Seybert to Brandywine; William Skiles, Deer Run to Franklin; Eston Smith, Route 220 to Schmucker; Denver Thompson, Reeds Creek to Upper Tract; Ralph Vandevander, Smith Creek to Franklin; and Samuel Vance, Brandywine Community.
279 4-H Projects
Judged Last Week
One hundred eighty-nine 4-H club members exhibited 279 projects at three community exhibits last week at Franklin, Upper Tract, and Circleville. One hundred fifty-one girls’ projects were checked along with one hundred twenty-eight boys’ projects.
