Three injured in house explosion

Three people were injured in a house explosion that occurred on Thursday, Jan. 26, near Tioga.

The explosion occurred at 3 p.m. at the residence of Harry and Diane Coffman near Marble Lane.

According to residents of the area, Harry and Diane Coffman and a 2-year-old grandson were all injured and suffered burns in the blast.

All three were taken by Redi-Care and Jan-Care Ambulance Services to Summersville Regional Medical Center. Harry Coffman was transferred to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown and later to another hospital. Diane Coffman was taken to a hospital in Huntington and released earlier this week. The 2-year-old grandson was taken to a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was released on Monday. The condition of Harry Coffman is unknown.

Also responding to the explosion were the Craigsville Volunteer Fire Department, the Nicholas County Sheriff’s Department and the Nicholas County Office of Emergency Management.

The cause of the explosion is unknown but it is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Emergency responders at the scene initially said it appeared a natural gas leak or propane tank explosion may have caused the home to explode.

Residents nearby say the impact of the explosion lifted the home a few feet into the air and then it fell to the ground where the roof fell in.

The home was a total loss and the family lost everything. Two other children who lived in the residence were on their way home from school at the time of the explosion.

 

 

 

 

Practice makes perfect

Both intense heat and a rainbow resulted from this large simulated propane fire which volunteer firefighters on the left are battling. The simulated propane fire was set up at the Summersville Volunteer Fire Department station as part of Section II Firefighter certification training Jan. 21-22 for volunteer firefighters from Nicholas and surrounding counties. The large fire simulated a propane tanker blaze situation. A spokesman for the SVFD explained that the firefighters initial goal was to push the intense flames back far enough so that one of them could reach down and turn off the valve. The valve controlled the propane used to create the fire on metal ladder-type tool on the far right of the picture. Once the propane valve was turned off near the tool, firefighters extinguished the flames.

 

 

 

 

Man nabbed for pawn shop break-in

A man was arrested last week and charged with the breaking and entering of a Summersville pawn shop.

Kyle Justin VanHoy, 27, of Summersville was arrested late last Tuesday evening shortly after allegedly committing the crime.

According to the criminal complaint filed in Nicholas County Magistrate Court, the Summersville Police Department received a call that an alarm had sounded at 12:45 a.m. at the Hometown Loan and Pawn store at 1044 Arbuckle Road. Patrolman S.M. Louden arrived at the scene and found the window in the front door had been broken.

Patrolman Louden then viewed video on a security camera, which showed what had taken place earlier at the store. As the security video was being viewed, Sgt. Bobby Holdren of the Nicholas County Sheriff’s Department stopped VanHoy who was walking on Arbuckle Road away from the pawn shop.

Patrolman Louden advised Sgt. Holdren of the clothing description VanHoy was wearing on the security video. Sgt. Holdren advised Patrolman Louden that VanHoy had the same clothing on as the person on the security video.

VanHoy was arrested and charged with breaking and entering and destruction of property.

VanHoy was arraigned in Nicholas County Magistrate Court and taken to the Central Regional Jail where he remains on $50,000 bond.

A preliminary hearing was held for VanHoy on Tuesday, Jan. 31, in Nicholas County Magistrate Court.

 

 

 

 

Locals show strong opposition to

USDA/FSA office relocation at public meeting

Several Nicholas County dignitaries, farmers and residents, along with farmers from Webster County, showed up at a public meeting held at Nicholas County High School on Thursday, January 26, to express their disapproval of the proposed consolidation of United States Department of Agriculture/Farm Service Agency offices from several counties. The proposed plan would close the Nicholas/Webster County USDA/FSA office currently located in Summersville and consolidate it with the Braxton/Clay and Gilmer/Calhoun offices, with the consolidated offices being located in Gassaway where the current Braxton/Clay office is already housed.

Present to hear the concerns of locals were representatives of the West Virginia State Farm Service Agency, including State Executive Director Alfred Lewis, Executive Officer John Pettit and District Directors Doug Cyphers, Michael Taylor and John Smith.

Also present to show their strong disapproval of the plan were members of the Nicholas/Webster County FSA Committee, including Chairperson Jim Cox, Vice-Chairperson John Pitsenbarger, members Brian Amrstrong and Estil Hughes and Advisor Ruth Mustoe. Unable to attend was member Gueard Jordan.

The meeting kicked off with opening remarks and introductions from John Pettit, who was acting as moderator for the evening. Executive Director Alfred Lewis then took the podium to welcome the crowd and explain details of the current consolidation proposal.

Lewis explained that due to necessary budget cuts, the USDA/FSA had proposed to consolidate 131 offices nationwide, 5 of which are in West Virginia. According to Lewis, in 2008 West Virginia had 115 employees to manage 28 county FSA offices.

Today, there are only 90 employees to man the same number of offices. He went on to state that in order to maintain the best possible service for the producers and provide the support for FSA employees to do their job, offices would need to be closed and consolidated with other offices.

Lewis went on to explain the process of which offices were chosen for consolidation. According to Lewis, there were two categories that an office could fall into to qualify them for closure. One way that an office was chosen was by criteria that was written in the 2008 Farm Bill. Lewis said that the Farm Bill mandated that any offices located within 20 miles “as the crow flys” of another office and employs two or fewer employees was to be on the list for consolidation. The other criteria for closure was if an office employed zero permanent full-time employees. The Nicholas/Webster office qualified due to the fact that it employees zero permanent full-time employees.

After Lewis’ comments, locals had the opportunity to express any concerns they may have involving the proposed plan. Each person that wanted to speak was given five minutes to make comments. All comments were recorded by members of the state office and were to be taken into consideration during the final decision making process of the proposed consolidation plan.

 

 

 

 

Board Approves Personnel Reduction in Force

The Nicholas County Board of Education on Tuesday evening, Jan. 24, learned that the planned personnel reduction in force for the next school year will save the county between $100,000 and $180.000.

The Board also expelled a student from Nicholas County High School, reviewed the personnel changes at each school for the 2012-13 school year, approved the list of professional and service personnel eligible for continuing and probationary contracts for the 2012-13 school year along with the list of extracurricular terminations for the 2011-12 school year.

Present for the meeting were Board President Dr. Lloyd Adkins, Vice-President Phil Berry and members Barbara Taylor, Bob M. O’Dell and Jason Swager.

Personnel Reduction in Force Analysis
Nicholas County Superintendent of Schools Beverly Kingery and Board Treasurer Kevin Hess reviewed with the Board the proposed personnel Reductions in Force from the current 2011-12 school year that will take effect for the 2012-13 school year. A total of four employees thus far will lose their jobs the next school year with all four having held service positions.

There will be a one-half of a professional central office position in the county office eliminated due to attrition. This will save $30,000 in state and local funds.

There will be one special education aide position each eliminated at Mount Nebo Elementary School, Panther Creek Elementary School and Summersville Middle School due to lack of need.

Another service personnel position eliminated will be a bus driver due to attrition.

Elimination of the three special education aides and the bus driver will save $120,000 for a total savings of $150,000.

In the area of federal funds, one special education aide position will be eliminated due to lack of need. This will save $30,000 in federal funding for service personnel.

This means that the combined state and federal funds saved would be $180,000, including $150,000 in state and local funding and $30,000 in federal funding,
“It is difficult to estimate actual special education aide requirements due to changing student need,” said Superintendent Kingery. “Therefore, the cost effectiveness could be less than projected. It is anticipated that a final cost efficiency would be closer to $100,000,” she added.

 

 

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