W. Virginia Man Dies in Surface Accident

by Scott Wampler
Staff Reporter
        A West Virginia man was electrocuted last week while clearing brush at a CONSOL mine in Buchanan County.
       Richard Cox, 40, of Coalwood, WV, was found slumped over an old guywire that had become unattached and made contact with high-tension wires, according to Frank Linkous, spokesman for the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.
        The accident occurred near the Page portal of CONSOL’s mine operations on the old Permac mining permit on Thursday, May 4 at around 1 p.m., Linkous said.
       Employed by Nichols Construction, a contracted  company, Cox was clearing brush around the Buchanan No. 1 mine on the day of his death, Linkous said. Although fellow employees have been interviewed, Linkous confirmed, no one witnessed the accident.
        “We have done interviews with the employees,” Linkous said. “We have crews there today.”
     The department is working alongside the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in the investigation. At this point, Linkous said, it is undetermined whether the mine or the Department of Labor and Industry will be responsible for conducting the final investigation.
          “It will be a little while before we have a concurrent decision,” Linkous said.

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PSA Cracks Down on Water Thieves
County Residents Asked to Help

by JoBeth Wampler
Staff Reporter
         The Buchanan County Public Service Authority is making an effort to crack down on water thieves and it is asking for help from county residents to do so.
         According to PSA Director Darrell Cantrell, some county fire hydrants have been used to steal allegedly several thousands of gallons of bulk water a month. It has been a problem for many years now, Cantrell said, but he added, it has "gotten worse to a degree."
         Likening the theft of bulk water to speeding or littering, he said catching those who are committing the crime is extremely difficult. However, unlike those too crimes, it results in some community-felt effects.
          According to Cantrell, the county's public water system was designed with the regulations and guidelines of the Virginia Department of Health. The size of each fire hydrant and water line allow for 250 gallons of water to safely flow from the hydrant each minute. However, that isn't the most amount of water a person can draw each minute.
          When pushed to its limits, a lone fire hydrant in Buchanan County can put out 1,000 gallons of water every minute -- but not without being felt by someone somewhere. In order to produce that that much water, the line must pull water from all sources, Cantrell explained. When large amounts of water are being used, the farthest lines connected to the system will lose pressure and in the worst instances, he said, run dry.

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Supervisors Continue to Discover Road Mistakes of the Past
Board Member Laments Citizen Reactions

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
        The actions by some public officials in the past have created a problem for supervisors in the present, South Grundy Chairman Roger Rife told fellow board members during Monday’s continued meeting of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors.
         Rife lamented that as board members continue to discover problems related to roads and bridges in the county which are questionable as to their status as county roads and bridges, some county residents appear not to be concerned with making sure things are done correctly, but rather with how they can get their road or bridge paved or built.
         Explaining to residents that their roads or bridges -- which are really nothing more than private bridges or driveways -- are ineligible for expenditure of county road funds is something some don’t understand -- or don’t want to understand, Rife said, based on how he said some of the former supervisors allegedly did things in the past.
         "What has been done in the past is creating a hardship," Rife said, explaining later that by hardship, he meant some people expected current supervisors to continue doing what was done in the past, creating confusion when a supervisor now has to deny a request.
         Some other supervisors in the past, he said, did things which Rife alleged are now said to be illegal and things the present board cannot do when it comes to road or bridge construction or maintenance.
         Telling them "no" now, in an effort to follow state law and county road policy guidelines, he said results in some members of the general public getting upset.
        "I don’t know what the answer is to it, but it creates a problem with those aspiring to get elected next time," Rife said. "It’s hard to be an honest politician because you serve so many self-interested, self-centered people. They don’t care about what’s legal or illegal, what’s right or what’s wrong as long as they succeed in getting their way. It puts a hardship on anybody trying to be straight, which I am and I am sure this board will try to be."
         Rife noted there have been several bridges built in the past which the county paid for, which are now being questioned.
        "If the county paid for it, it really is a county bridge," Rife said, adding the real question now is whether the county wants to keep a questionable bridge as a county bridge, or remove it from the system.
         "It’s another thing the general public doesn’t understand," Rife said.

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