Planning Commission welcomes new member

Morgan County Sanitarian Brian Carter is the newest member of the Morgan County Planning Commission.

The commissioners welcomed Carter to the board on Tuesday, August 23. He fills the last available position on the commission replacing Thomas Tucker Stinebaugh.

Carter grew up in Morgan County, is a graduate of Berkeley Springs High School and a graduate of West Virginia University where he attained a bachelor degree in Business Administration.

He taught for several years in Florida before moving back to the Greenwood area of the county and taking the sanitarian job with the Health Department.

As a sanitarian, Carter said he was familiar with well and septic issues, handles animal investigations and restaurant inspections, teaches some health related classes and works on special task forces.

“Our relationship with the Health Department and the Health Board has always been great, and I am very appreciative of that. It is going to be handy to have you involved in what it is that we do,” Planning Commission Presi-dent Jack Soronen told Carter.

Minor subdivision
In other business, the commission approved the final plat for a one lot subdivision totaling 2.71 acres owned by Phyllis Webster near the intersection of Highland Ridge and Spriggs roads.

The final plat was approved after two waivers were passed approving a reduction in the scale and size of the drawing.

Consulting engineer Richard Parks said the owner had met all other requirements for the subdivision.

Eric Pritchard handed a document to the commissioners for their consideration warning that planned restrictions on the use of riparian buffer areas and restrictions in the flood plain “reduced the value of such lands to such an extent that it would amount to a regulatory taking.”

Asked what he was referring to, Pritchard said the coming restrictions of the Chesapeake Bay Initiative and the Region 9 model Stormwater Management ordinance.