What a difference a year makes. Last June, Harriet and I had just purchased The Observer and were rushing to pull together our first issue. With this, our twelfth issue, we’ve had time to think, experiment, and change. We hope to keep on this path and welcome your thoughts as we continue to present the stories and voices of our community. Read the Full Story >>
Steve Pearson
Not Your Run of the Mill Operation
After two years of operation, the Shenandoah Planing Mmill has grown to host several other businesses that fit into the collaborative model that takes in raw logs at the back of the building and can deliver finished furniture, molding, and other wood products out the front loading docks. Read the Full Story >>
Expecting Change
Many of us can remember being told by our parents to carry some change in our pockets to call home when we were ready for a pick up — at least until we were old enough to get a driver’s license (and a job to pay for gas). Read the Full Story >>
A Vision for Hill Top House
By the time Fred and Karen Schaufeld first saw the Hill Top hotel in the early 1990s, it was still imposing, but definitely “shabby chic” as they described it — built to last, but worn down by time. Read the Full Story >>
Working & Playing Together
As spring unfurls in 2021, I’m sure all of us look forward to reuniting with our communities and harnessing this energy for a brighter future. Read the Full Story >>
Mountaineer Rental Assistance Program
The Mountaineer Rental Assistance Program is designed to assist West Virginia renters at risk of eviction or homelessness due to COVID-19. Read the Full Story >>
A Long View Of The Landscape
Red barns (such as the one in Meyerstown, above) are an iconic symbol of the rural landscape across the country — testaments to the effort of the individuals who built them, who used them, who maintained them. Preserved seems an odd word to apply to these structures, intended originally to be working components of agricultural operations. Read the Full Story >>
2021 American Conservation Film Festival
The American Conservation Film Festival (ACFF), now in its eighteenth year, is presenting 48 contemporary films in an online festival format for 2021. Aside from the obvious shift away from in-person venues at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) and Shepherd University, the biggest change to this year’s format is the flexibility of watching any (or all) of the films at any time during the festival dates (March 24-28). Read the Full Story >>
Connecting Solar In Jefferson County
The Observer spoke with several energy industry professionals with experience in the development and management of utility-scale energy projects to understand the general context for the types of large-scale solar projects being proposed for Jefferson County. We also researched the specific topography of the local power grid and land to understand both the potential and constraints for these types of solar projects in Jefferson County. Read the Full Story >>
Transportation Hub for the Eastern Panhandle
The question to ask is, “do you want to take advantage of economic development opportunities?” said Shane Farthing, Director of Economic and Community Development for the City of Martinsburg. He suggested that if the city did not have a train station and “we did a study on how to improve the economy, we’d ask how great it would be to have a train station. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize the good things you already have. Read the Full Story >>
Learning To Remember
The railroads we see around Jefferson County never cease to fascinate me and Harriet (and our dogs). While there is a sense of permanence in these structures of steel, stone and wood, many of these buildings have evolved or been transformed through time. Read the Full Story >>
Coming Together to Talk Politics
After the past year of 24/7 political and pandemic coverage, it might seem odd to hear David Welch say “we need to talk more about politics, not less.” The director of the Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communications at Shepherd University is quick to point out that he means being able to have constructive conversations. Read the Full Story >>
Talking Across Time & Space
Adam Booth credits a course he took with Rachael Meads in the Appalachian Studies department at Shepherd University for starting him on the path to becoming a professional storyteller, a passion he has pursued as a career for the past fifteen years. Read the Full Story >>
Time To Share A Story
When I interviewed professional storyteller Adam Booth for the Speak Stories article in this month’s issue, one of the topics we touched on was the role of storytelling in the community and his experiences traveling the country to speak. He noted how during his visits, people often seek him out asking, “do you have time to hear a story”? Read the Full Story >>
Jefferson County is Horse Country
Driving around, it’s easy to see the agricultural activity that surrounds us in Jefferson County, but it often seems at a distance. As part of a planned series of articles looking at the activities that have defined Jefferson County across several centuries, The Observer recently visited one of these operations — the Blue Spruce Farm in Kearneysville WV. Read the Full Story >>