News Articles

After much agonizing and debate, the Morgan County Commissioners unanimously approved a 9% tax increase last Friday afternoon, March 23.

The hike only applies to the county government portion of the property tax bill, which is less than a quarter of the total bill. The increase will raise the overall bill by 2% or 3%.

A Rhode Island man was arrested on Friday for assaulting a local man with cerebral palsy. But that was just the end of a complex story.

David K. Junkins, 36, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, was arraigned in Magistrate Court on March 23 on misdemeanor charges of battery and destruction of property.

Three Maryland men accused of attempted murder and arson turned themselves in to Morgan County authorities in recent days.

Richard Lewis Ihler, 22,

A plan to ease downtown parking problems for customers of local businesses and generate more revenue for the town was submitted to Bath Town Council at their March 19 meeting.

The proposal was authored by Parking Enforcement Officer Gene Kilduff and presented to council by Police Chief James Minton.

Residents spoke out on proposed noise and nuisance ordinances at a March 23 public hearing before the Morgan County Commission.

A Jefferson County ordinance to abate excessive residential noise that is deemed a public nuisance and a Berkeley County ordinance that designates habitually howling and barking dogs as a public nuisance were to be considered separately for adaptation to Morgan County at the public hearing. The County Commissioners suggested combining the two ordinances into one ordinance.

At their March 23 meeting, the Morgan County Commission unanimously voted to adopt the revised edition of the Morgan County Compre-hensive Plan. The County Commission held a public

hearing on the County Comprehensive Plan on Tues-day, March 13

Two Morgan County policemen were dragged more than 25 feet when a Paw Paw man jumped into his vehicle during a police search last Wednesday and put the car into reverse.

Morgan County Sheriff's Deputy C. H. Cobern and Paw Paw Police Chief Brian Sites were dragged by the open door of the vehicle and sustained cuts, abrasions and bruises during the incident, according to Morgan County Chief Deputy Vince Shambaugh.

Three Maryland men are being charged with attempting to kill one of the men's grandparents and burn down their trailer in western Morgan County, according to West Virginia State Police.

Named in criminal complaints filed in Magistrate Court on Monday afternoon were Richard Ihler, 22, and Christopher Lesser, 22, both of Silver Spring; and Bryan Woods, 21, of Rockville.

Once native to only the Great Plains of the western and mid-western United States, the number of coyotes in the eastern United States has been steadily increasing.

During the last 50 years, the coyote's domain has expanded eastward from the northwest and the southeast. Today coyotes are found in every state in the continental United States, according to a West Virginia Division of Natural Resources website article.

An elderly Berkeley Springs man and his wife were recent victims of what is known as the fake grandson scam. Someone claiming to be Milton (Stewart) Garber and Marion Garber's grandson called them on March 2 saying that he was in trouble in Canada and needed $3,000 to stay out of jail.

Milton Garber rushed to the bank to withdraw the needed cash and drove to the Wal-Mart in Hagerstown to wire the money. Garber didn't have the additional $60 needed to wire the $3,000 and had gone back out to his truck to return to the bank.