10 Years Ago
Week of June 16, 2016
Closing Date Set
For Navy Base Auction
What has become known to national media outlets as the “West Virginia town for sale,” but known to Pendletonians as the Navy base, will host the third open house for prospective buyers today.
The General Services Administration made the announcement on June 9.
GSA was charged with disposing of the property after Navy Information Operation Command, Sugar Grove was disestablished on Sept. 1, 2015. The property was vacated and gates were locked on Sept. 30.
This property includes nearly 123 acres and 105 structures with many modern amenities including an administration facility, fire/emergency services center, youth and fitness centers and recreational lodging. Eighty housing units and 53 housing suites, representing 106 rooms, round out the site’s resources.
CORRECTION…
The bird pictured on the front page of last week’s edition of “The Pendleton Times” was incorrectly identified as a blue heron. Several observant readers informed the “Times” that the fowl should have been identified as a Sandhill Crane a very unusual sight around this part of the United States. According to wildlife biologist, Chuck Waggy, “That bird should be in the Arctic tundra with its young right now.”
Hedrick Wins
County Farm Bureau Poster Contest
Katelyn Hedrick, a fourth-grade student at Franklin Elementary School, won the Pendleton County Farm Bureau’s “Picture Agriculture in West Virginia” poster contest. Second place in the county contest went to Kinley Hinkle with Dusty Smith earning third place.
20 Years Ago
Week of June 15, 2006
Rural Fire Hydrants May Help
With Fire Insurance
Pendleton County fire departments and landowners have the opportunity to take advantage of grant money for the installation of dry hydrants in the county to aid in fire prevention and control.
Dry hydrants are non-pressurized hydrants permanently installed in water sources, such as ponds or streams, which provide a supply of untreated water in areas where standard hydrants may not be available. In the event of a fire, having a limited supply of water and long travel distances can be disastrous for property owners in rural areas. Rural areas are the most common locations for dry hydrants because of the limited availability of standard treated-water hydrants. Due to the lack of standard hydrants, fires in rural areas are often more difficult to contain and to control with the lack of water resources.
30 Years Ago
Week of June 20, 1996
Seneca Rocks Man
Winner in 1997
WV Calendar Contest
A Seneca Rocks man was one of 11 winners in the 1997 Scenes of West Virginia calendar.
Harrison Shull of Seneca Rocks submitted a photograph entitles “Crack of Dawn,” showing a man climbing one of the mountains at Seneca Rocks. The photograph will be one of 13 scenes highlighting the state that will appear in the calendar which is printed and produced by Easton Printing Company of Parkersburg.
Shull said he is very pleased with being selected. Shull’s winning entry was one of almost 500 slides and photographs that were submitted in the contest.
“The Scenes of West Virginia calendar is the only state calendar that is photographed by West Virginians and is printed and produced in this state,” said Easton Printing manager, Carole Easton.
40 Years Ago
Week of June 19, 1986
Old Log Church in Smoke Hole Is Site for Sunday Service
In the Smoke Hole sits a small log church. In 1850 it began its life as a Methodist Church. By 1900 it was empty and forgotten. In 1931 it began a new life as an Episcopal Church. In the 1949 flood much of the area was destroyed and the church slowly moved to oblivion. After the 1985 flood the building still sits on a hill above the South Branch River and it is always open for prayer and meditation. It is a serene and peaceful place and it is worth a visit.
Rev. Frank Carr, Suffragen Bishop of West Virginia, will conduct a service at St. George’s Episcopal Church, Smoke Hole.
No Easy Way to
Remove Tree Stumps
Looking for a quick and easy way to remove a tree stump from your property? Sorry, no such method exists.
Chemical methods are available, but they require several years for results. And, some of these chemicals can be hazardous.
The old, tried-and-true method of removing stumps still seems to be the best. That means physically and manually removing the stump.
One approach is to dig around the stump and pull it out with a tractor. Another is to dig around the stump and cut it off six to 12 inches below soil level. Treat the stump with insecticides to prevent termites and cover it with soil.
As the stump decays, you will need to put on additional soil. Beware that mushrooms may sprout in the yard as the stump and roots begin to decay.
Machines called “stump chippers” do just that — they chip out the stump 18 to 24 inches below the soil line. If you want to remove many stumps, this device could be very useful.
ROPS Could
Save Your Life
What is ROPS? It’s a Roll Over Protective Structure, a sturdy steel frame that could save your life or protect you from a disabling injury.
According to the National Safety Council, several hundred American farmers are killed in tractor overturns each year and many more are disabled. But, studies show that injury severity has been greatly reduced and deaths practically eliminated in overturns of tractors equipped with ROPS and safety belts.
In the event of an accidental tractor overturn, ROPS reduces the tendency for the tractor to roll over completely, and it protects the operator wearing a safety belt from being crushed.
If you have a tractor that doesn’t have this protection, check with your equipment dealer to see if a ROPS can be installed. And remember, your ROPS attachment will only provide the intended protection when it has been certified for your particular tractor model, when it’s properly installed, and when you buckle up.
50 Years Ago
Week of June 17, 1976
Pendleton Begins
21-Day Flag Salute
“Let us renew our faith in the true spirit of the Stars and Stripes and the heritage which it reflects.
“Let us so act in our daily lives, in our relationships with our fellowmen, in our responsibilities of citizenship and in our willingness to bear the burdens of freedom that our children’s children will have grateful reason to bless the memories of their fathers and mothers, as we have to bless those who established our great nation and those who preserved our freedom heritage for all of us to enjoy.”
These were among the remarks made by Richard Homan last Saturday morning at the official inauguration of Franklin and Pendleton County’s Bicentennial 21-day flag salute.
Ruddle Church
Built in 1881
The Ruddle Presbyterian Church will have a celebration on Sunday, June 27, beginning with worship service at 9:45 a.m. This is in commemoration of the church building, built in 1881, which is the oldest Presbyterian church building in Pendleton County.
Small Post Offices
May Get Reprieve
WASHINGTON — The senate post office and civil service committee ordered and reported on Friday a postal bill containing a moratorium on the closure of small post offices throughout the nation until February, 1977. A commission on postal service was established to study problems facing the postal service and make recommendations. It is hoped that the recommendations will contain provisions for subsidies for continuation of the operation of smaller post offices.
U. S. Senator Jennings Randolph, ranking majority member of the committee, offered and the committee accepted an amendment which would prevent the closing of any post office serving less than 35 families unless 60 percent of those families served by the facility agree.
70 Years Ago
Week of June 14, 1956
Wimer Pitching
For 9th Division
‘Redlegs’ in Germany
GOEPPINGEN, Germany—Army Pfc. Thomas E. Wimer, Jr., 21, whose parents live in Franklin, is playing baseball in Germany with the 9th Division Artillery’s “Redlegs” team.
Wimer, who is a pitcher with the team, is regularly assigned to Battery C of the division’s 26th Field Artillery Battalion as a gunner.
The former Potomac State College student entered the Army in December 1954 and arrived overseas in June 1955. He is a 1953 graduate of Franklin High School.
Virginia Motorcade
To Visit Pendleton
The annual Harrisonburg-Rockingham Good Neighbor tour, sponsored by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, is scheduled to visit Pendleton County on Wednesday, June 20.
The motorcade, made up of about 200 persons, including the Harrisonburg High School Band, will visit in Brandywine, Sugar Grove, Monterey, Blue Grass and McDowell.
The group will make a 20 minute stop in Brandywine at 7:40 a.m., and will then proceed to Sugar Grove where they will stop for breakfast at 8:20 a.m. Lunch will be served at Monterey, Va., and dinner at Grottoes, Va.
EDITORIALS
A Warning in Time – – –
In last week’s edition of the ‘Times’ we carried a story of a truck wreck that occurred on Alleghany Mountain June 1 resulting in approximately $10,000 damage to the truck and its payload. On April 29 a large tractor-trailer wrecked on Alleghany Mountain just 1/4 mile from the scene of the wreck written up in last week’s paper. In that wreck the driver of the tractor was killed. There have been numerous other wrecks on Alleghany Mountain in recent years, many of which were large trucks carrying heavy loads.
Is there anything that could be done to reduce the number of these accidents? Certainly every effort should be exerted to prevent as many as possible because of the danger to life and limb, and because of the great property damage that often results. It is especially important to Pendleton County to keep its highways free of accidents because of its need for a large volume of tourist trade. And since the county is not served by a railroad and must depend entirely upon trucks for freight transportation, it would seem that we should leave no stone unturned to avoid highway accidents.
It has been suggested by a number of persons that one possible method of reducing the number of accidents on our mountainous highways is to employ the use of a type of road sign that is not used in Pendleton County and possibly not in the whole state. This particular type of road sign would be used on mountains in places where there is very little grade, but which descend into sections of road that are steep. This would warn the motorist who is driving down the mountain that he should not assume that he is off the mountain simply because he has reached a section of the road that is not so steep.
This type of sign would be especially important to truck drivers who sometimes shift out of the lower gears when they reach a section of road that is relatively level and then when they find themselves on a steeper grade, the weight of their truck is so great that their brakes will not hold them back and they lose control.
There is a section of road near the foot of Alleghany Mountain in Pendleton County where a sign of this type is especially needed. It is the scene of many truck accidents, some of which may have been avoided had the driver seen a sign which read, “WARNING—STEEP GRADE AHEAD.”
