Mountaineer Gas will be in the Morgan County Courthouse in Berkeley Springs this Friday June 30 at 9 am in an effort to forcibly take parts of the Kesecker family farm by eminent domain for a controversial gas pipeline.
Christopher Robertson
Jackson Kelly
The proposed pipeline will run from the Potomac River near Lover’s Leap in north Morgan County, West Virginia to Martinsburg along the north side of Route 9 and will cut through the middle of the Kesecker farm, which sits along Route 9 between Berkeley Springs and Hedgesville.
On June 16, more than 20 people, including members of the Kesecker family, who have refused to give up their property for the pipeline, met at the Spohrs Community Center with an eminent domain attorney, Chip Lollar of the Lollar Law Firm.
Lollar is representing the Keseckers in the eminent domain action.
Mountaineer Gas is being represented by Christopher Robertson of Jackson Kelly in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Tracy Cannon of Eastern Panhandle Protectors organized the meeting between the holdouts and Lollar.
“We organized this meeting because Mountaineer Gas is trying to take land using eminent domain from friends of ours to use for this pipeline,” Cannon said. “It’s a sad day in this country when you have to get your friends a lawyer to protect them from having their property taken by a big corporation and the government.”
In the eminent domain lawsuit filed against the Keseckers, Mountaineer Gas says that it was unable to come to an agreement with the Keseckers on an amount of compensation for the rights of way through their property.
Cannon urged those opposed to the pipeline to attend the initial courtroom hearing to show their support for the Keseckers at the Morgan County Courthouse on Friday June 30 at 9 am.