{"id":1917,"date":"2015-08-27T12:10:57","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T16:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2015-08-27T12:10:57","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T16:10:57","slug":"in-berkeley-springs-fairfax-street-open-mayor-merki-says-burned-out-building-wont-come-down-until-after-apple-butter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1917","title":{"rendered":"In Berkeley Springs Fairfax Street Open, Mayor Merki Says Burned Out Building Won\u2019t Come Down Until After Apple Butter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After four months of being closed, Fairfax Street in Berkeley Springs was reopened to auto and foot traffic yesterday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KqvVE4-SsZc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The street was fenced off after an April 27, 2015 fire gutted a building that housed businesses and apartments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past few weeks, workers have been tearing down the third floor of the burned out building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the building won\u2019t be completely torn down until after the Apple Butter Festival in October.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe want to make sure that the street is open for the Apple Butter Festival,\u201d Merki said during an interview on This Week in Morgan County, a new half hour community television show. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/berkeleyspringscommunitymatters.com\/2015\/08\/27\/twimc-102-scott-merki\/?embed\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden;\" webkitallowfullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merki said that after Apple Butter, the street will be closed again and the rest of the building will be torn down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the building is taken down, what will go in that space?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merki said that the representatives of the owners of the building are saying that they just want to get the building down before any decisions are made.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey want to get the building down, have it backfilled so that road and sidewalk can be opened up,\u201d Merki said. \u201cI would hope somebody would come in and build the building back to what it was.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the issue of truck traffic through town, Merki said that he was told years ago by the state of West Virginia \u201cthat there is really no way to get the truck traffic\u201d off US 522.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI don\u2019t know what the solution is for the trucks,\u201d Merki said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there can be anything done about it. The state will not ban trucks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the state of Virginia banned trucks off Rt. 17 &#8212; a roadway that connects US 66 and Rt. 50. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why couldn\u2019t something similar be done in Berkeley Springs?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou would have to get the state on board and the state is not on board,\u201d Merki said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYears ago, they wanted to make 522 a toll road,\u201d Merki said. \u201cI\u2019m not in favor of a toll road. I spoke out against it six or seven years ago. I wanted the trucks off the roadway, except for the local trucks. Hancock banned trucks from going through town years ago, except for local deliveries. They had a lot of truck traffic travelling through Hancock. So they made an ordinance that trucks over a certain weight could not come through town.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How come Hancock <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can do it but Berkeley Springs can\u2019t?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d Merki said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we need to look into.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merki said he has mixed feelings about a possible bypass around town.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBusiness owners say they will lose business if there is a bypass,\u201d Merki said. \u201cNinety percent of the truck traffic is not stopping in our town. They might stop in Morgan Square where they can get in and out easily. This is a tourist destination. And that\u2019s where we are getting a good amount of our business.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever see the bypass in my lifetime. Maybe my grandchildren may see it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merki said that if we could figure out a way to get the trucks to stay on interstates &#8212; 70 and 81 &#8212; \u201cthat would be preferable.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLocal trucks, truckers who make their homes here, are more than welcome,\u201d Merki said. \u201cI don\u2019t care if they come through here 100 times a day. But preferably, I\u2019d like to see the thru trucks go down 70 to 81 to Winchester.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have any scales here in Morgan County,\u201d Merki said. \u201cIf we had some type of scale, you might see some of these trucks go a different route. Some of them are trying to get by the scale houses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the train depot at the north side of town, Merki said that renovations are ongoing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThat building looks really good now and I\u2019m ticked with what has been accomplished,\u201d Merki said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s going into the train depot?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI don\u2019t know what it is going to become,\u201d Merki said. \u201cPeople say they want a visitors center or a welcome center. The problem with that is that we have a visitors center in town. I would like to see it become more of a hub where we have some literature in there and then we point them to our local visitors center. It has not been decided.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve suggested maybe putting our local police department down that way,\u201d Merki said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we are thinking. That\u2019s just throwing it out there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merki also suggested that the public get a say in what goes into the train depot. \u201cLet\u2019s have the public vote on it,\u201d Merki said. \u201cThat\u2019s the public\u2019s building just as much as it\u2019s the Town of Bath\u2019s.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merki said that as a young man he worked at the local Tastee Freeze &#8212; which was at the site of the current Sheetz.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new Sheetz will be opening on the corner of Rt. 13 and US 522.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will the Rt. 9 Sheetz remain open when the new Sheetz opens?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo,\u201d Merki said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m hearing. They will close it down. Who knows what that will become?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After four months of being closed, Fairfax Street in Berkeley Springs was reopened to auto and foot traffic yesterday. The street was fenced off after an April 27, 2015 fire gutted a building that housed businesses and apartments. Over the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1917\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}