Hearing Officer Delays Discharge Permit Ruling

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
  A decision related to the issues to be decided in an administrative review hearing requested by seven petitioners who have formally contested a Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy decision to grant CONSOL Energy a permit to discharge mine water from Buchanan #1 into the Levisa River at Poetown has been delayed.
  Initially, Hearing Officer Thomas McCarthy indicated he would issue a decision related to the issues and the parties by December 20, 2006.
  However, last week, a letter was mailed to all of the parties indicating that decision would not be forthcoming until January.
  "Please be advised that Hearings Officer Thomas J. McCarthy Jr., has requested an extension of the date to rule on the pre-hearing matters," DMME Hearings Coordinator Gavin Bledsoe wrote. "The ruling date is changed from December 20th to January 10, 2007. This will allow Mr. McCarthy time to review the November 29th transcript and consider the correspondence submitted by the parties."
  The seven petitioners who filed to contest the DMME action to grant the discharge permit include the Town of Grundy; Buchanan County; Grundy Attorney Mickey McGlothlin as an individual; Gentry, Locke, Rakes and Moore on behalf of the Big Vein Companies; Jeannie Keen, of Vansant;  Commonwealth Attorney Sheila Tolliver; and Venable LLP on behalf of Wellmore Coal Company, LLC.
  DMME is represented in the proceedings by Assistant Attorney General Sharon Pigeon.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  To subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.  

Hall of Famer Therman Boyd Dies

  Buchanan County Hall of Famer Therman E. Boyd, 86, of Grundy, died Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at Wellmont Bristol Regional Medical Center following an extended illness. 
  Born in Buchanan County, he was the son of the late Starlin and Maude Lester Boyd. 
  He was a member of the Buchanan First Presbyterian Church serving as elder and for many years served as Sunday School teacher and superintendent.
  Mr. Boyd was a retired businessman, having been a retail merchant in the Town of Grundy for many years.  
  He was named to the Buchanan County Hall of Fame in 1991 and is also credited for having initiated the Buchanan County Hall of Fame to honor outstanding citizens of the area. It was Boyd who presented the first award in 1976. 
  He was a former director of the Virginia Coal Council; former director of Suburban Health Council #2; former chairman of the Buchanan County Industrial Development Authority; and was a primary fundraiser from the retail community that co-sponsored a multi-national coal conference in Roanoke in 1980. 
  He was a former director of Miners and Merchants Bank; a former director of the Grundy Parking Commission; a former director of the Southwest Virginia 4-H Camp; a former board member of the Board of Assessors for Buchanan County; a former president of the Buchanan County Chamber of Commerce, having served two terms; a former president of the Grundy Business& Professional Association; a former president of the Grundy Kiwanis Club; a former chairman of the Breaks District of the Boy Scouts of America;  a former director of Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commission; and a former chairman of the Buchanan County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
  He was also a recipient of the Boys Scouts of America's highest honor, the Silver Beaver Award.
  In 1977, as Buchanan County was devastated by the most damaging flood in the county’s history, the board of supervisors appointed him disaster chairman. Under his leadership, the county became organized, motivated and confident in its efforts to rebuild.  He was instrumental in having the county declared a disaster area which provided federal monetary assistance.
  Mr. Boyd was preceded in death by his first wife, Mona Belle King Boyd on October 14, 1994; one sister, Edna Boyd; and four brothers, Claude Boyd, Curtis Boyd, Lowey Boyd and Edd Boyd.
  He is survived by his wife, Stella Ratliff Boyd, of Grundy; two daughters Kaye and her husband, Mack Keen, of Grundy; and Charlene and her husband, Don Kemp, of Carlisle, Pa.; one son, Gary and his wife, Pat Boyd, of     Meadowview; two sisters, Dorothy Hess, of         Grundy and Pauline and her husband, James Ball, of            Kingsport, Tenn.; one brother, Virgil and his wife, Blanche Boyd, of Tazewell; two sisters-in-law,      Jean Boyd of Vansant and Dora Clark Boyd, of Grundy; six grandchildren, Barbara Ann Keen of Grundy, Gary Boyd Jr., and Tracy Light, both of Meadowview, Mark Clevinger of Nashville, Tenn., and Jeff Freeman and Elizabeth Anne Schirm, both of Cincinnati, Ohio; and 10 great-grandchildren.
  Funeral services were  Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 11 a.m. at Buchanan First Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Jeff Porter and Bill Parish officiating. Entombment followed in the Forest Hills Memorial Gardens, Abingdon.
  Active pallbearers were  grandsons and nephews.
  Honorary pallbearers were men of the Buchanan First Presbyterian Church, Dr. Clint Sutherland and Dr. J. G. Patel.
  The family suggested expressions of sympathy be made in the form of donations to the Heavenly Helpers Relay for Life Team, P. O. Box 1016, Grundy, VA  24614.
  Grundy Funeral Home, of Grundy, was in charge of all arrangements.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  To subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.