{"id":2930,"date":"2017-07-27T18:07:34","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T22:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2930"},"modified":"2017-07-27T18:07:34","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T22:07:34","slug":"morgan-county-commission-to-hear-citizens-against-mountaineer-gas-pipeline-august-2-in-berkeley-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2930","title":{"rendered":"Morgan County Commission to Hear Citizens Against Mountaineer Gas Pipeline August 2 in Berkeley Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Citizens opposed to the Potomac River Pipeline will finally have a hearing before the Morgan County Commission August 2 at 9:30 am at the Morgan County Courthouse in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2929\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2929\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2929\" src=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/courthouse-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan County Courthouse Berkeley Springs, West Virginia\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/courthouse-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/courthouse-1.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2929\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morgan County Courthouse<br \/>Berkeley Springs, West Virginia<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hearing was requested by members of the Kesecker family and by Eastern Panhandle Protectors. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They and others are battling a proposed IGS Utilities Mountaineer Gas pipeline that is projected to cut through the Kesecker and other properties just north of Rt. 9 in Morgan County.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IGS Utilities Mountaineer Gas has sued the Keseckers under eminent domain to gain the right to cut through their farm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2908\">The pipeline company\u2019s eminent domain lawsuit against the Keseckers<\/a> and other bullying tactics against local landowners has brought together a right\/left coalition in Morgan County to fight the pipeline project.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response to the request, Morgan County Commission President Joel Tuttle said that while the Commission would hear those opposed to the pipeline on August 2, the Commission \u201chas very little say in this matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt is certainly more of a state and federal level matter,\u201d Tuttle wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Tracy Cannon of Eastern Panhandle Protectors reminded Tuttle that early in the process, before members of the community had any information at all about the project &#8212; or even knew about it &#8212; the Morgan County Commissioner weighed in with the West Virginia Public Service Commission in favor of the pipeline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.psc.state.wv.us\/scripts\/WebDocket\/ViewDocument.cfm?CaseActivityID=451478&amp;NotType=%27WebDocket%27\">In a letter dated May 26, 2016<\/a>, then Commissioner President Brad Close wrote to the PSC that \u201con behalf of the Morgan County Commission\u201d to support the gas pipeline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both Tuttle and Commissioner Bob Ford said they never saw the letter before it went out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tuttle said that the Commission urged Mountaineer Gas \u201cto come and address the public and they were not interested in doing so.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCommissioner Ford did, however, convince Mountaineer Gas to meet with him and the Kesecker family and their offer was turned down by the Kesecker family,\u201d Tuttle said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Patricia Kesecker has said in the past that she insisted that the meeting with Mountaineer be public, but that the gas company refused to allow reporters in the room and that\u2019s why the meeting didn\u2019t happen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The meeting before the Morgan County Commission on August 2 is open to the press and public.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Citizens opposed to the Potomac River Pipeline will finally have a hearing before the Morgan County Commission August 2 at 9:30 am at the Morgan County Courthouse in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The hearing was requested by members of the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2930\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2930","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=2930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2931,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2930\/revisions\/2931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}