It’s been a rough couple of months for the anti-school levy forces in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
In February, their lawsuit challenging the May 13 levy ballot vote went down in flames (they are appealing.)
Then anti-levy leader Jeannie Ford, wife of Morgan County Commissioner Bob Ford, backed out of a debate she had previously agreed to.
Another anti-levy leader, Brooks McCumbee, a candidate for the school board, said that people who don’t think like “Morgan County natives” are “trash” and urged them to leave the county.
Now, it appears that the pro-levy forces have taken an early lead in the battle of the yard signs.
A survey today of yard signs from Route 9 east from Sheetz to the Morgan County line shows that pro-levy yard signs outnumber anti-levy yard signs 12 to 2. (The anti-levy forces have paid for four billboard ads, including two on Rt. 9 East. And a large homemade anti-levy sign is up across from Hillbilly Heaven.)
A similar survey today of yard signs on US 522 South from Berkeley Springs High School to the Virginia line shows that pro-levy signs outnumber anti-levy signs 30 to 4. (Two of the four anti-levy billboards are on that stretch of US 522.)
That means that pro-levy signs outnumber anti-levy yard signs on those two stretches by 42 to 6 (by 7 to 1).
During last year’s campaign on the levy, the anti-levy signs far outnumbered the pro-levy signs. This year, the early trend is reversed.
The levy went down to defeat last year by a vote of 1,672 citizens against (56 percent) to 1,323 for the levy (44 percent.)
Last May, the victorious anti-levy forces were driven by anti-tax arguments made by its leaders, including Tim Seims, who claimed in a May 8, 2013 letter to the Morgan Messenger that “some believe that it doesn’t matter what taxes we pay since one can never do too much for the kiddies.”
The “kiddies” pretty much sat out of the fight last year, but this year, they are taking a leadership role in the pro-levy campaign.
This Friday night, April 11 at 7 pm they will be holding the “Rock the Levy” music event at the Granary.
This Saturday night April 12 between 4 pm and 10 pm, they will be holding a Youth Club Night at the Berkeley Springs Bowlerama.
And on May 4, there will be a student rally at Berkeley Springs State Park.