Top 10 events that impacted region in 2009

By CHARLES OWENS

BLUEFIELD — From the collapse of the six-story Matz Hotel in Bluefield to the potential impact of federal cap-and-trade legislation on the coalfields of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia, 2009 will be remembered as a year of turbulent change and unprecedented challenges for the region.

As the year that was 2009 comes to a close, the editorial board of the Daily Telegraph has selected the Top Ten Stories of 2009. The top stories are:

1. A towering controversy — wind turbines proposed on East River Mountain.

The concept of going green took on a whole new meaning in 2009 for the region. With the Obama administration pushing new clean energy sources, the scenic beauty of East River Mountain was suddenly threatened, and the greater Bluefield region was divided by a towering controversy.

Dominion and BP Wind Energy North America announced they had purchased a large track of land along the ridgelines of East River Mountain with the objective of constructing as many as 60, 400-foot tall windmills. The news quickly divided the region. Some welcomed the announcement of the wind turbines, and the promise of a new and clean energy source for the region. However, others strongly objected, and warned the giant turbines would devastate the scenic beauty of East River Mountain, harm the environment, kill birds, cause property rates to plummet and cause potential harm to nearby residences and schools.

Caught in the middle of the controversy was the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors, who scrambled to develop a proposed ridgeline construction ordinance. Tazewell County has no current zoning laws. Although the wind turbines aren’t proposed for the municipal limits of Bluefield, Va., the Bluefield, Va. Town Council still passed a similar ordinance regulating the development of tall structures in the town. However, the supervisors were slow to act on the proposed ridgeline ordinance, and even opted to delay a second public hearing on the revised ridgeline plan until Tuesday, Jan. 12, at 6:15 p.m. at Tazewell Middle School.

While Tazewell County was slow to make a decision, neighboring Wise County gave a green light of approval to a similar wind turbine farm also proposed by Dominion and BP. While they await a decision by Tazewell County, officials with Dominion and BP are continuing a number of studies on East River Mountain.

A meteorological tower to study wind speed and direction has already been erected on East River Mountain. A number of geo-technical studies, along with wildlife and avian studies, are also continuing at the Tazewell County site, according to officials with Dominion.



2. Tolls raised on the West Virginia Turnpike — region cries foul.

Despite overwhelming opposition from citizens, elected officials and business leaders in southern West Virginia, the West Virginia Parkways, Tourism and Economic Development Authority still voted unanimously to raise tolls along the 88-mile turnpike between Princeton and Charleston.

Members of the Parkways Authority voted unanimously on June 30 to raise tolls for passenger vehicles from $1.25 to $2 and for large trucks from $4.25 to $6.75. Steep discounts also were approved for motorists who purchase EZ Pass commuter passes. The revised rates took effect on Aug. 1.

Many local residents pleaded with the authority members not to raise tolls, arguing the move would place an unfair burden upon residents and businesses in the deep south counties. Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth, R-Mercer, argued that the toll itself puts the counties along the road at a competitive disadvantage with their counterparts elsewhere in West Virginia, and Caruth argued that raising the tolls put the region at an even greater disadvantage.

Authority members in return argued the toll increases were needed to keep the highway between Charleston and Princeton from falling into further disrepair.

Three lawmakers — Delegate Clif Moore, D-McDowell, Delegate Mike Porter, R-Mercer, and Delegate John H. Shott, R-Mercer — went as far as to participate in a civil protest along the Ghent toll booth. Moore held a placard with the message: “Unfair Unforgettable Unforgivable” above his head. The lawmakers didn’t attempt to physically block the toll booth during their protest, and the incident ended peacefully.



3. Mercer County Sheriff arrested on drug related charges.

Former Mercer County Sheriff Danny Ray Wills found himself on the wrong side of the law in 2009, and was sentenced to six months in prison after he pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with fraudulently obtaining and possessing hydrocodone.

According to court documents, Wills, 63, of Bluefield, also a medical doctor, admitted that during his tenure as sheriff he ordered and obtained 4,500 hydrocodone pills from General Injections and Vaccines in Bastian, Va., and paid for them with proceeds from the Mercer County Concealed Weapons Permit Fund, according to earlier reports from U.S. Attorney Charles T. Miller.

Miller said Wills had the pills shipped to the sheriff’s office in Princeton.

U.S. District Judge Irene C. Berger of the Southern District of West Virginia sentenced Wills to six months in a federal penitentiary. The sentence was actually at the high end of the federal sentencing guidelines that granted Wills a two-level downward departure for acceptance of responsibility, as well as a one level reduction based on Wills’ conviction-free record prior to his guilty plea. The guideline range was zero to six months in prison.



4. History crumbles in Bluefield — six-story Matz collapses.

Another historic structure in downtown Bluefield — the near century old six-story Matz Hotel — collapsed during the early morning hours of Feb. 27 creating a sea of rubble along Princeton Avenue and downtown Bluefield. No one was injured and no passing vehicles were struck or trapped under the debris.

The collapse of the Matz also destroyed the marquee and front lobby of the Colonial Theater, a structure built in 1916. The demolition of both structures took weeks to complete.

The Matz Hotel — a landmark that occupied a prominent position in Bluefield’s city skyline for 98 years — was originally erected in 1911.

The old Colonial started out as a silent movie theater, became a part of the Keesling Movie Theater Chain, and was later owned by the Milner family, according to earlier reports by Dr. C. Stuart McGehee, director of the Eastern Regional Coal Archives of the Craft Memorial Library in Bluefield.

City officials are now seeking federal funding for the construction of the proposed Colonial Intermodal Center that is planned at the former site of the Matz and the Colonial.



5. Coal under attack — federal cap-and-trade legislation threatens historic coalfields.

The historic coalfields of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia were threatened in 2009 by federal climate change legislation sought by the Democratic majority in Congress and the Obama administration.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed cap and trade legislation — a method of regulating carbon emissions bill — that would require the coal industry to curtail greenhouse emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. A measured proposed in the U.S. Senate went even further by calling for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases. The Senate has yet to vote on the cap and trade legislation.

Republicans — who are largely opposed to cap-and-trade legislation — argue the move from cheaper and more abundant fossil fuels, such as coal, for electricity production could lead to soaring energy prices. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned that the earlier House measure would eventually cost the average household an extra $175 per year.

The controversial process of mountaintop mining also came under scrutiny in 2009 by the Obama administration when the Environmental Protection Agency held up 79 already approved permits.



6. Tragedy in Davy — weather blamed on fatal accident at McDowell County church.

Tragedy struck the small Davy community in McDowell County on Feb. 12, after a powerful gust of wind lifted the gymnasium of the Twin Branch Pentecostal Trinity Assembly Academy, and pushed it forward into an academy classroom building. The accident claimed the life of Patricia Sabo, 35, of Big Sandy.

Sabo was attending the wake of her brother, Kevin Shirley, when the fast moving storm entered McDowell County from the west. The church is located on county Route 7 between Twin Branch and Marytown.

Shirley, 29, of Roderfield, had died earlier in the week following an unrelated incident at the McDowell County Sheriff’s Department in Welch after police said he took a deputy’s weapon and committed suicide inside of the sheriff’s office, according to earlier reports by Sgt. W.C. Tupper of the West Virginia State Police Welch Detachment.



7. Double slayings at pizza parlor shocks Tazewell community.

A double homicide in Tazewell County shocked the Claypool Hill and Richlands communities.

Harvey Looney, 52, and his wife Valerie Looney, 48, of Bandy, both employees of the Pizza Plus at Claypool Hill, were both found dead on the morning of March 30 at the restaurant. Looney was found outside near the restaurant’s back door and Valerie Looney was found at her desk.

Although an active investigation continues, no arrests have been made to date in the double slayings. The case remains under investigation by the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators are calling the crime a double homicide. Officials at the sheriff’s office have indicated robbery may have been a motive for the slayings.



8. Federal stimulus transportation funds go to Beckley — local projects excluded from first round of funding.

When Congress passed a massive $787 billion federal stimulus package more than a year ago, lawmakers said a majority of the federal funds would be used to build new roads and bridges across the nation — similar to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933 — to help jump start the failing economy. Local officials were hopeful that a portion of those funds could be used to continue construction of the King Coal Highway in Mercer County and the Coalfields Expressway in McDowell County.

However, local officials cried foul when all of the federal transportation stimulus dollars earmarked for West Virginia’s Third Congressional District went to Raleigh County instead for the completion of the East Beckley Bypass project. U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., state Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox, and Gov. Joe Manchin, all defended the decision — arguing the East Beckley Bypass project was the only project in the state’s Third Congressional District that could be completed with the federal stimulus funds.

Local officials are hopeful that the King Coal Highway and the Coalfields Expressway can now be funded through either a second round of federal stimulus dollars, or through the new highway transportation bill currently being drafted by Congress.



9. Father receives maximum sentence for the death of his 5-year-old daughter.

Mercer County Circuit Court Judge William Sadler imposed the maximum sentence of 80 years during the July 26 sentencing hearing for Ronald Holcomb, 36, of Bluefield for the death of 5-year-old Brooklyn Holcomb.

Holcomb received 40 years for second-degree murder and an additional 40 years for child abuse resulting in death. Sadler ordered both sentences to run consecutively.

The long case dates back to Jan. 15, 2007, when Holcomb first brought his daughter to Princeton Community Hospital. When seeing the extent of the girl’s injuries — severe head trauma, bruising and internal injuries — the Princeton Police Department was contacted. The child was transported to Charleston Area Medical Center where she died Jan. 17, 2007.

10. H1N1 virus spreads across the region.

The global swine flu pandemic struck the region during the summer of 2009, and thousands were sickened across southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia by October. School officials across the region reported large absenteeism levels in October — due in part to the H1N1 virus. Health officials in Mercer County reported more than a thousand cases in October of individuals with flu-like symptoms. After peaking in November, the number of swine flu cases in the region began to drop as the H1N1 vaccine was distributed. By late November, health officials in Southwest Virginia reported that more than 12,000 residents in the Cumberland Plateau Health District, which includes Tazewell and Buchanan counties, had been inoculated against the H1N1 virus.

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