Community News

Plans for the 34th annual Apple Butter Festival parade are underway in Berkeley Springs and parade organizers say that more bands will be marching through town on October 6 to kick off the festival.

"We're pleased that we already have committments from several more bands this year," said Nancy Sostaric, chairperson of the Apple Butter Festival Parade Committee. "We are really trying to make the parade bigger and better."

Brown

Morgan Harmison of Berkeley Springs has spent the summer studying Opera Theater at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the internationally renowned classical music festival in Aspen, Colo. To be selected for one of the coveted spots, she had to compete in an audition process conducted in nine major U.S. cities.

Opera Theater participants appear in fully staged opera productions with distinguished conductors, weekly opera scenes master classes, concerts, and an intensive curriculum of music, acting and movement classes. As a student, Harmison received private music and dramatic coaching and weekly voice lessons and voice master classes with guest artists.

Rika Bennett threw convention to the winds with her 16th quilt for the annual Apple Butter Festival. "Beth really likes blues but I thought it was time for something else," said Bennett about the planning chat she has each year with festival coordinator, Beth Curtin. "This year I chose glorious fall colors and I really love it."

The 2007 Festival quilt, a standard queen-size, is officially named Autumn Colors. It is the first to use fabric purchased at Berkeley Springs' own quilting shop, Acorns and Oaks. It is also the first Bennett stitched on her new long arm machine which allows free motion stitching on up to 13-foot wide quilts. "I simply use the stitching head like a pencil and let the spirit take me,"said Bennett. The quilting is random in the sense that it follows no set traditional pattern but it is anything but random to the eye.

A "Meet the Artist" reception for metal sculptor Peter Wood is scheduled on Friday, August 17 from 5-7 p.m. on the porch of Lot 12 in Berkeley Springs.

The restaurant has two of Wood's large lifelike metal sculptures—"Man" and "You, Me and Baby" on display in their garden. Both pieces are for sale. "Man" was displayed at the Washington, D.C. United Sculpture Park from August 2000 until April 2001.

Many people are unaware of the process of how county board positions are filled, said Commissioner Brenda Hutchinson at last Friday's commission meeting. A lot of people have told her they didn't know there were vacancies on the boards.

"We often have to go begging for people to serve on them," said Commission President Glen Stotler.

Saturday, August 25 will be a busy day in the Town of Bath. Council approved both a block party to be held in the gravel driveway between North Washington Street and The Old Factory Antique Mall, and a chicken barbeque by the Hancock Lions Club on the west side of Fairfax Street next to the park.

Block party

The Town of Bath Historic Landmark commission met recently and approved the employment of historic consultant David A. Taylor. To oversee the historic district nomination for the Town of Bath secretary Faye Ritenburg wrote a letter of acceptance and updated the contract for the work. The letter and contract must be approved by state. The state has already approved a grant for this work.

The final editing of the historic survey of the Town of Bath has been finished and Larry Springer of Morgan County Library has agreed to display the survey in the library. Plans were discussed for an architecutral coloring book selected homes of the Town of Bath under the direction of Commission Historian Betty Lou Harrison. The group plans to work with Berkeley Springs Museum to work on coordinating fund raising efforts.

Shenandoah Valley WIC & Nutrition Services announces its upcoming office relocation to 404 South Washington Street in Berkeley Springs. Program Director, Mitch Greenbaum is optimistic that the new location will result in more accessible services to young families in the Morgan County community.

The WIC program provides nutrition counseling as well as nutritious food and infant formula to pregnant women and children up to the age of five. They also offer breastfeeding support to mothers and babies.

Following the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis last week, area residents have been asking questions about the safety of the U.S. 522 Bridge over the Potomac River.

"The bridge is in fine shape," said Charles Gischlar of the Maryland Highway Administration.