Jeanne Mozier took to the airwaves this week to announce that the yearly Apple Butter Festival is cancelled.
As in – it’s not going to happen in 2020.
Next Apple Butter Festival – October 9-10, 2021.
“It’s a very sad announcement,” Mozier told Rob Mario and David Welch on WRNR’s Eastern Panhandle Talk. “We tried every way to figure out how to make that event fit the fairs and festivals guidelines. But there just wasn’t a way. The Health Department just said no. It’s not like they were going to do at the state fair where there is an entrance and exit. The Apple Butter festival is wide open and all over town. But I will say to the general public – no one is cancelling the fall foliage.”
(The image for this year’s Apple Butter Festival, pictured above, was created by local artists Carol and Jean Pierre Hsu. T-shirts with the image will be on sale soon in Berkeley Springs.)
But Morgan County Day is still on for Monday July 6 from 11 am to 3 pm at Berkeley Springs State Park.
“The only official ceremonial part of it is from 12 noon to 1 pm where there will be very short speeches from the gazebo in the park,” Mozier said. “We are going to have a couple of food trucks on hand across the street in the farmers’ market area, so that people can go and get something to eat. We will be debuting this incredible Morgan County Bicentennial quilt that our local quilters made. It’s 34 different squares of attractions throughout the county. Nineteen women worked on it. It’s really pretty special. After the quilt show, which starts later this month at the Ice House, it is going to go hang forever in the Morgan County Courthouse.”
Rob Mario asked – How will you be going about your Covid-19 safety precautions during the course of the celebration?
“The park has a lot of space in it,” Mozier said. “People can be everywhere in the park. We will have a sound system, you can basically social distance throughout the entire town. We will be livestreaming it and filming it for a future video. I told the people who are coming – five minutes only for your speech and then I’ll banish them from the gazebo. It will just be me and the quilt and my cutout of Danny Morgan on the gazebo.”
“The swimming pool will be open. The museum will be open. We have been pretty open in Morgan County since the beginning of May and our numbers are pretty much unchanging. We still haven’t had even 20 cases since the beginning of March. I keep telling people – we are a healing place.”
David Welch asked Mozier about George Miller’s upset of Daryl Cowles in the recent Republican primary for the 58th House of Delegates district.
“I actually had the same conversation with Charles Trump,” Mozier said. “He was shocked. He asked me – Weren’t you shocked?”
“And I said – I’ll tell you what happened. I will give you a list. All the people who didn’t like Daryl pushing the bypass down our throats. All the people who didn’t like the gas pipeline. All the people who didn’t like that he had two jobs. And the teachers were pretty solidly behind Mr. Miller.”