Found: Human remains identified as two of three missing

Found: Human remains identified as two of three missing

by Stephanie FIlson, Point Pleasant Register Gallipolis Daily Tribune

07.26.11 - 10:33 pm

William “Jeff” Crawford’s whereabouts still a mystery

GALLIPOLIS FERRY, W.Va. — After two days of careful excavation surrounding the area where human remains were found in Mason Co., W.Va., over the weekend, investigators with the West Virginia State Police Crime Scene Team have confirmed that two bodies were found on site and have been identified as Tonda (McCarty) Nelson and Ashley (Baird) Crawford. According to officials, the two women, along with Crawford’s husband William “Jeff” Crawford, have been missing since June 17, 2011. Mr. Crawford’s whereabouts are still unknown.

“We are now dealing with a homicide investigation,” said Sgt. E.B. Starcher of the Mason County Detachment of the West Virginia State Police.

Investigators have also released that the remote site where the two women were found is owned by a family member of Matthew Woods. Woods, also of Gallipolis Ferry, was arrested Friday on charges of first degree murder in the shooting death of Rene A. Gonzalez. As of press time, investigators say the two cases are not connected.

Starcher reported Sunday that the human remains of at least one person had been found that evening, around 8:30 p.m., just off of Duncan Creek Road in Gallipolis Ferry. From that time, until the early morning arrival of forensic specialists on Tuesday, the West Virginia State Police Crime Scene Team closed the road to traffic and secured the site of the shallow grave that had been discovered by a group of people walking through the woods.

Forensic specialists from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., arrived on site Tuesday morning to help state police process the scene. They have since completed the work of processing the Duncan Creek scene.

Mystery has shrouded the case since the trio’s disappearance, and known details seem to only lead to more questions. The Crawfords’ mobile home located on Jeffers Ridge in Southside, W.Va. was destroyed by what investigators called a “suspicious” fire in the early hours of June 17. A few days later, family members reported the couple missing, and Nelson was reported missing shortly afterward — she was said to have been last seen with Ashley around June 16. The Crawfords’ vehicle, which was reportedly located in Mason County by investigators, has been impounded by the sheriff’s office.

Investigators had considered various scenarios before Sunday’s grim discovery and Tuesday’s confirmed identification of Crawford and Nelson, including the trio hiding out from some unknown danger or the trio starting a new life, based on initial reports from family and friends who say the Crawfords had expressed a desire to leave the area and move south, possibly to South Carolina or Alabama. It is now known that foul play was certainly involved in the disappearances; what isn’t known is the whereabouts of the third missing individual — William “Jeff” Crawford. Investigators report that no cell phone or bank activity has been detected since the three vanished.

The family of Jeff Crawford, whose 29th birthday was June 29, has been circulating a Facebook post asking that anyone with information on Jeff contact them anonymously with their information or tips at P.O. Box 73, Point Pleasant, W.Va., 25550.

The West Virginia State Police is leading the investigation of the deaths of Nelson and Crawford, as well as the ongoing search for William “Jeff” Crawford. Anyone with information may contact them at (304) 675-0850.

Copyright 2011 Gallipolis Daily Tribune. All rights reserved.

© mydailyregister.com 2011

Consolidation leads to cruel schools

Aaron Metz
Consolidation leads to cruel schools
Friday November 10, 2000

Back to Gazette Online

Our state Department of Education strongly promotes school consolidation because of "economies of scale."

But I have piles of evidence on my desk showing that consolidation undercuts hope of achieving higher test scores. In other words, it is pretty much proven scientifically: Consolidate and test scores fall.

Education Week magazine reported on 150 small schools Chicago is studying. The evidence concludes that with smaller schools, there are fewer days missed, fewer classes cut, less violence, less expense per pupil, higher grades, and the teacher can call each student by name.

In the frenzy to consolidate, as Tara Tuckwiller reported, the small Hannan rural school in Mason County was stripped in hope the state would provide consolidation money for a bigger school. But a Marshall University professor brought scholars to the school and transformed it into a school of excellence.

Likewise, researchers find that small schools help students overcome the effects of poverty. Craig Howley of Ohio University and Robert Burke of Marshall University did research that came to the conclusion that smaller schools in poor communities "tend to maximize the school's performance as measured by standardized tests."

Harden Elementary in Harrison County earned the designation "School of Excellence" in June. In spite of this, the school was lost to consolidation because it "exceeded all goals and standards except economies of scale," according to the state Department of Education.

Smaller schools, smaller classes, is what many parents and teachers have been saying for years. A Tennessee study proves that "small classes in early grades" can help kids to do better, all the way through college, and "they should be provided in all our elementary grades."

Times change. On my first day of school, I cried while the teacher held me in my seat as my mother started walking home. I wasn't too upset though, because I was going to run home at recess.

Now with consolidation, mothers put their tiny tikes on a big yellow bus full of absolute strangers. The first day of school can be very cruel and can leave lasting impressions. That mother may cry too as the big bus vanishes from her view. And her little one doesn't have the options I had on my first day at school.

And so on. The Putnam County Board of Education recently approved a $90 million school facilities plan that includes consolidation of Poca and Buffalo high schools. Tim McCoy, a father of two, said, "The worst thing I can think the school board can do is sit with their arms crossed and their minds closed, and not listen to what the people of Putnam County have to say about the issue."

In the Harts High School gym, Gov. Underwood said, "We need to look at ... the need for consolidation." And just like that, the people were on their feet. They were electrified. They were applauding, hooting and hollering, according to a Gazette report. Don't the people of West Virginia have any constitutional rights?

School consolidation prepares students for prison. Twelve-year-old Sarah Lusk is smart enough to know that consolidation can be cruel. She writes in the Gazette, "I feel very strongly against the consolidation plan. I believe the bigger the school is, the more violence there will be. Sometimes I feel as if the adults don't think this thing through all the way and at times like this, the kids are smarter ... We truly don't want it to work, so we are going to work our hardest to make sure it doesn't." (Sarah earned an A-plus in civics.)

Most every small school has one or two more-or-less violence-prone students, probably from dysfunctional homes. Consolidation brings them together. And there just might be a Hitler-type among them who has a natural, innate urge to lead a gang. Don't be surprised if they add more than expense and frustration to the educational institution.

"A study by the New Jersey Boards Association found that size was the most important predictor of school violence, " crime expert F.A. Fox said. "The most effective strategy for preventing school violence is to limit school size."

The consolidation of Roosevelt Junior High School in Charleston should never have happened. But the die has been cast and it's too late now. Parents were angry and the students cried. Why did the county board take a school away from a community teeming with children? Don't communities have any constitutional rights - right here in Charleston with more than 1,400 lawyers (see Yellow Pages)? Now, who is forcing Pete Thaw to choose another "Roosevelt school" for consolidation?

It is all over. Roosevelt has gone the way of the bowling teams. The heart of the community is gone like the village square or the public well. Soon the neighbors and the young people won't know each other by name anymore.

Consolidation can be cruel. As a lady in Eleanor said: "Many people don't understand what the school means to the small town of Eleanor. It's been the pillar of the community for over 50 years. "

Consolidation can be cruel - and where is the evidence for "economies of scale"?

Metz is retired as a West Virginia State College economist.

Mason consolidation plan gets OK

But parents who oppose combining three high schools vow to block proposalMarch 31, 1998

By Tara Tuckwiller
Gazette Online

POINT PLEASANT - Mason County school officials got state permission Monday to close the county's three high schools and build a new school north of Point Pleasant, but many of the 120 residents who attended a public hearing on the closings said they won't stand for it.
"Here we go again," said Hannan parent Shirley Gue, who has led an anti-consolidation group in the county for three years. "The people of Mason County have said it a hundred times, but for the record, I will say it again. We do not want one high school in Mason County."
Twenty-one parents from Gue's group, which calls itself "Mason County Kids First," filed a lawsuit against the county school board last week in Mason circuit court, seeking an injunction against the consolidated school plan. They allege that board members are violating the 1997 agreement that settled the county's last anti-consolidation lawsuit by not following certain procedures, such as updating bus schedules, before they proposed consolidation again.
Board members want to close Hannan, Wahama and Point Pleasant high schools and build a $19 million, 1,400-student consolidated school about two miles north of Point Pleasant. Residents have repeatedly stalled the county's attempts to consolidate since the state School Building Authority granted $14.4 million for a consolidated high school three years ago.
"We basically heard from the SBA today that if we don't move ahead on this project, it's a dead duck," board member Mary Beth Carlisle said at Monday night's public hearing. "We can't let the people vote on it, and we can't use the money for anything we want. That's a fallacy."
Residents who spoke at the hearing said Mason County is too big for one high school, and they would like to see at least two high schools stay open. School officials since September have been planning a regional high school that would serve 750 students from Mason and Putnam counties.
Parsons and other county officials got permission from the state School Building Authority on Monday to move their planned consolidated high school from a plot the county owns near Point Pleasant High School to a bigger plot outside town, which would cost an estimated $650,000. The authority approved the site change on the condition that the school would serve all Mason County students, Parsons said.
That would seem to rule out a regional high school, but Parsons said it is still a possibility.
"We have reason to remain optimistic about that," he said.
Cindy Ball, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she would send her daughter Jennifer to private school in Huntington before she would let the school board bus her from Hannan to a consolidated high school at Point Pleasant.
"A lot of parents in Mason County work in Huntington," Ball said. "I do, and if my daughter got sick I would be 100 miles away from her. I couldn't pick her up."
The consolidated high school could be finished within three years, Parsons said. Board members will vote on closing the three high schools at their April 7 meeting.
As for the $4 million difference between the cost of the new school and the money Mason County has in hand, Parsons said he's not sure where that will come from.
"We need to look at a variety of sources on that," he said.
If Mason County doesn't start building a consolidated school by next March, the county will have to give up the money, reapply and compete against other counties for funds again, the Authority said Monday.
Putnam County schools Superintendent Sam Sentelle said officials there will continue planning the regional high school.

Election may mean consolidation reversal

Election may mean consolidation reversal
May 13, 1998

By Ken Ward Jr.
GAZETTE ONLINE

Anti-consolidation candidates trounced incumbents in the Mason County school board race Tuesday night, perhaps paving the way to reverse a move to create one high school for the entire county.
Challengers and leading consolidation opponents Shirley Gue of Ashton and Peggy Huff of New Haven led the ticket in a field of 15 candidates, with 3,379 and 3,312 votes, respectively.
With all 38 precincts reporting, another challenger, Jo Hannah Rorrer of Point Pleasant, came in a distant third with 1,371 votes to capture the third open seat.
Huff and Gue ran a "Vote for Two, Huff and Gue" campaign against the consolidation and incumbent consolidation proponents Donna M. Thompson and Mary Beth Carlisle.
"I think the county has spoken," Gue said from Point Pleasant. "We're going to say a prayer and then stop one high school."
Thompson received just 844 votes and Carlisle, 446. Another incumbent, J. David Morgan, received 1,027 votes. Morgan had a mixed voting record on consolidation, but voted against it in the end.
School consolidation opponents targeted Carlisle and Thompson for defeat after they voted in favor of combining Point Pleasant, Wahama and Hannan high schools into one facility.
One of the two incumbents not up for re-election this year voted against the consolidation. So with a victory by Gue and Huff, they could attempt to reverse the move.
"They do not want just one high school in Mason County," she said. "And they knew if they elected us they wouldn't have just one high school in Mason County."
Parents fighting the consolidation plan have halted the project, at least temporarily, with a suit filed in Mason Circuit Court.
Gue said she would like to put the consolidation issue on the ballot in the fall and allow the people of Mason County to vote on it. She thinks it would be defeated easily.
"There's no way one high school can serve all the students of our county," Gue said. "Our county is way too large and an hour or an hour and a half bus ride is too much."
Among other school board candidates, Paul James Doeffinger received 1,282 votes; Bob Drain, 979; Tom Sauer, 643; Donald E. Greene Jr., 531; Michael Ellswroth Whalen, 416; Rich Tench, 332; and Frankie Chapman, 227.
In other Mason County races, Circuit Clerk Bill Withers led the Democratic primary with 2,074 votes. Sherry Clatworthy received 374 and Shelly D. Mayes, 248.
Republican candidate Patty Lee was unopposed.
Incumbent County Commissioner Phyllis Ashley Arthur defeated two challengers in the Democratic primary. Arthur received 1,664 votes. Challenger Olston O. "Nick" Wright received 1,370 and Ben Roush Jr., 708.
James H. Lewis led the GOP primary with 972 votes. Gene O. Haer received 749 votes and Freddie Green, 736.
County Clerk Diana Cromley easily held off a challenge in the Democratic primary from Harry "Moke" Simpkins. Cromley received 2,485 votes and Simpkins, 1,180 votes. Republican Annette Boyles was unopposed.

Consolidation Children pay the price

Editorial
the Charleston Gazette ONLINE

July 23, 1998

Consolidation

Children pay the price

THE STATE School Building Authority has been doling out millions of dollars for school consolidations on the premise that bigger schools offer better and more efficient education for children.


The Gazette has generally supported consolidation over the years, but the SBA's single-minded drive for large schools that meet "economies of scale" discriminates against the needs of children in large, sparsely populated, rural counties.
 
Unfortunately, the state Supreme Court did not see it that way. Justices overturned a decision by Kanawha Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman that could have forced the SBA to reconsider its priorities.


As a result, the closure of Circleville High School in Pendleton County and the busing of its students to a new school in Franklin will proceed.


That means some students will be on buses three hours a day on twisting, treacherous roads over North Mountain. That's good for their education?


Meanwhile, across the nation, education experts are coming to the conclusion that smaller schools are better.


Arthur Foresta, who earned accolades for his work in New York City's troubled school system, told a meeting of editorial writers at a Hechinger Institute seminar at Columbia University that smaller schools create a more caring teaching environment.


"Kids fall through the cracks at larger schools," he said.


Smaller schools are better able to encourage parental involvement, which is a key factor in learning and educational success. What kind of parental involvement can the new Pendleton school expect, especially from those parents who live an hour and a half away?


Research is also showing that smaller schools are especially beneficial for low-income students, who tend to perform worse at large, consolidated schools.


The SBA maintains that larger high schools save money, making enhanced curricula available. But that's a dubious assertion in large, rural counties where transportation costs eat up potential savings.


Deirdre Purdy, an expert witness in the Pendleton case, noted in a Gazette commentary last year that 15 counties consolidated schools in 1990 - and nine of them had budget deficits in 1995. Economies of scale didn't save them from running into the red.


The SBA refuses to fund schools that don't meet a threshold of 200 students per grade level - unless, as in Franklin, the school will serve an entire county.


The authority apparently got that magic number from some studies saying the ideal high school has 600 to 900 students. But many other studies dispute this conclusion. And the authority abandoned research it began to determine whether consolidation produces any financial savings.


Again, mergers are often beneficial, especially in urban counties. But SBA members should be smart enough to realize that there is no blanket solution for a rural state like West Virginia.


What works well in Charleston may be disastrous in mountainous Pendleton

School panel calls for local meetings

School panel calls for local meetings
To gauge support for building projectsJune 30, 1998

Gazette Online

By Eric Eyre
STAFF WRITER

The state School Building Authority will require county school districts to hold forums with community residents to gauge support for school building projects.
The authority hopes that public input may fend off future lawsuits over school closings and consolidations.
"They must take their plan to the community and talk about it," authority Director Clacy Williams said at a Monday meeting. "We want to try to solve problems before they become aggravations."
Such "aggravations" have popped up most recently in Mason County, where the School Building Authority has allocated more than $14 million for a consolidated high school in Point Pleasant. A judge put those plans on hold, however, after consolidation opponents filed suit.
The authority also is appealing a Kanawha Circuit judge's ruling that blocked a plan to consolidate two high schools in Pendleton County.
Parents oppose the plan to close Circleville High School and bus its students to a renovated Franklin High School. The authority gave the county more than $7 million in 1995 for that renovation and expansion.
During the next year and a half, county school boards throughout the state will develop 10-year plans for improving their school buildings. The School Building Authority gives each county $20,000 for the studies.
Under the new authority guidelines, school districts must hold at least two public forums to discuss their building plans, which may include school closings.
"The purpose is to let the public be part of the planning process," Williams said. "The public is going to become educated and informed."
Under the current rules, county districts must hold a public hearing - but only after they have developed their building plans.
The new guidelines will help the agency determine whether community residents support projects when school boards submit them for funding.

To contact staff writer Eric Eyre, call 348-5194.

Consolidation Just the facts, ma'am

Gazette Online

Aug. 26, 1998

Consolidation
Just the facts, ma'am

IN their single-minded defense of consolidation, both state Schools Superintendent Hank Marockie and Charleston Daily Mail editorial writers are ignoring the facts.

A recent Daily Mail editorial was especially egregious. It said: "Franklin High is 17 miles away. Yet when half the former Circleville students sign up for a school 40 miles away in Grant County rather than attend Franklin High, one wonders if this is just a football rivalry carried to extremes."
That statement insults parents who went to the state Supreme Court in their effort to keep the Circleville school open, and it ignores the geography of the area.
Actually, the ride to Grant County is shorter - and safer - for many students living on the far side of North Mountain, which separates the two halves of Pendleton County.
Some of these students endured long rides to reach Circleville. Most of the 17-mile ride over tortuous mountain roads to Franklin is an add-on. To them, Grant County is nearer.
This is not about football rivalry; it's about students forced to spend three hours a day on a bus on dangerous roads.
Marockie is just as loose with facts. He claims that students do better and have more opportunities in large, consolidated high schools. But more and more academic research shows that students - especially students from poorer families - do better academically in smaller schools. They are more involved, and their parents are more involved, than when they attend large, distant schools. Truancy and dropout rates are lower.
Marockie also says that the state can't afford not to consolidate. But no one has ever shown that consolidation leads to any cost savings. The state School Building Authority abandoned a study on that issue.
Finally, Marockie pointed to Roane County as a consolidation success story. He ignores, however, that Roane County is less mountainous than Pendleton, has about twice the population in a smaller geographic area, and has a better network of roads.
The Gazette has long supported consolidation. We recognize many of the benefits of bigger schools. But it is not a one-size-fits-all solution, especially in a state with the terrain and population patterns of West Virginia.
Consolidation can be a wonderful thing in one county, yet be unwise in another. Pendleton is a prime example.
The protesting Pendleton parents asked only for some consideration of the special circumstances their children face: sparse population, dangerous roads, mountainous terrain. They got no such consideration. And now they have been accused of opposing consolidation because of a schoolboy sport.
That's really sad.

Putnam parents blast school consolidation proposal

Gazette Online

Putnam parents blast school consolidation proposal
June 6, 1999

By Tara TuckwillerSUNDAY GAZETTE-MAIL
Dishing up pizzas at Angaleno's Restaurant, Sherry Torman sees dozens of customers every day who remember the last time they talked about shutting down Buffalo High School.
They remember how the late Mr. Hulbert gave the land to the county 50 years ago, with the promise that there would always be a school there. They remember the speeches and pleas they made in 1992, when the school board almost closed the aging little school.
About 2,000 of them have signed Torman's petitions. She's starting the battle against consolidation early this time.
"There's going to be a fight on their hands," she vowed.
The anti-consolidation push has united groups of parents from Buffalo to Poca, although other parents in the area argue in favor of consolidation.
It's only a few weeks old, coming after a recent public meeting of Putnam County's school planning committee known as Vision 20/20.
Vision 20/20 started three years ago. The school board asked a group of parents, teachers and community members to find out what people in Putnam County want in the way of school buildings.
As recently as October, Vision 20/20 said don't consolidate - just fix up what we've got. But now, Vision 20/20 is asking people if maybe they wouldn't like to consolidate Buffalo and Poca high schools into one new high school at Eleanor or Red House.
"They're saying consolidation means technology, better facilities. I think it's a lie," said Terry Foster, who is leading an anti-consolidation campaign in the Poca area.
Poca just lost its biggest employer when a Rite Aid warehouse announced it was pulling out with its 600 jobs.
The high school's enrollment has dropped in recent years to fewer than 600, although elementary and middle-school enrollments have gone up.
Buffalo, by contrast, is home to Putnam County's new Toyota engine plant. County planners expect the area's population to explode by 70 percent in the next 20 years.
Becky Raynes, an Eleanor native and Vision 20/20 member, said she doubts that.
"I don't see that happening," said Raynes, who has put three of her children through 300-student Buffalo High. "There's just not any property. It's all tied up in industrial property. There's some land out Eighteen Mile Creek and places like that, but it's not flat like in [Teays Valley]."
Raynes used to be anti-consolidation, too - until her children started college.
"It didn't really hold them back in college, that they'd gone to Buffalo," she said. "But there were classes they wanted to take in high school, and they just weren't offered. If the school was just a little bit bigger ..."
Raynes favors building a new high school between Poca and Buffalo. According to Vision 20/20 statistics, so do half the people they've surveyed.
The other half wants to keep all four of the county's high schools. Raynes said she imagines Vision 20/20 will probably wind up recommending that.
"I have a feeling that's the way it's going to be," she said. "If so, I won't move. My other three will graduate from Buffalo, too."
No matter what Vision 20/20 recommends, it will be a while before the Putnam school board does anything, according to board member Joe Starcher.
"The board won't make a decision to run a huge bond just because Vision 20/20 says so," Starcher said.
Whether Putnam County consolidates or fixes up all of its schools, Vision 20/20 has estimated the cost at $80 million.
Without consolidation, the state School Building Authority probably won't provide much of that money. So county voters would have to approve a multimillion-dollar bond issue.
Even so, Starcher said he won't vote to close schools just to get state money. He said Putnam County could redraw its school districts instead to give Buffalo and Poca more students.
"I'm not in favor of [consolidation]. I want four high schools," he said.
"There's no way in the world I'd vote on anything until I see what redistricting would do."
Meanwhile, Torman and Foster say they'll keep carting petitions over to the school board office.
They argue that a single high school on the north side of the Kanawha River would force some children to ride the bus for too long, and that big schools mean increased crime and less chance that a child will be able to participate in confidence-boosting extracurricular activities.
Vision 20/20 will hold another public hearing on the issue at 7 p.m. July 6 at Winfield High School.

Judge refuses to block allocation of $14.4 million school building funds

Judge refuses to block allocation of $14.4 million school building funds

05-18-99
By BRIAN FARKAS
Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A Mason County man has lost an initial round to keep $14.4 million in state school construction funds in his county.
Don Greene was in court Monday attempting to delay a state School Building Authority decision that reallocated the money to projects in 11 other counties. The authority had voted hours earlier to fund the projects.
The Leon resident's lawyer told Kanawha County Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib Jr. the reallocation should be halted until next month's court hearing on Greene's lawsuit challenging the county's decision to return the money to the state.
Mason County was given the money in 1996 to replace Point Pleasant, Wahama and Hannan high schools with a single school. Since then, a new school board decided against the consolidation project and in March agreed to give the money back to the state.
That decision came after the state said it would take back the $14.4 million because county officials had failed to start construction within the three-year period required by law.
"You're asking a board of education to do something the board has said it doesn't want to," Zakaib told Greene. "The board of education has already taken a position -- they don't want the money."
The judge then denied Greene's request.
Although the county gave up the money, Greene has filed lawsuits in Kanawha and Mason counties to force board members to stick to the original consolidation plan.
Even with the pending lawsuits, the authority was told Monday it should proceed with its plan to fund the other projects. Authority members had planned to reallocate the money earlier, but agreed to delay their decision to give Greene time to pursue his challenge.
"The threat of legal action shouldn't be used to intimidate state boards," Silas Taylor, managing deputy attorney general, told the authority. "You gave him the opportunity he needed and he failed to take advantage of it."
The authority agreed to use the $14.4 million, plus $500,000 in other authority accounts to fund projects in Barbour, Berkeley, Braxton, Grant, Greenbrier, Monongalia, Pleasants, Raleigh, Roane, Webster and Wyoming counties, said Clacy Williams, the authority's executive director.

Mason farms are being uprooted for those in search of open spaces

Homegrown
Mason farms are being uprooted for those in search of open spacesJuly 20, 1998

Gazette photos by CHRIS DORST
Families farmed these Southern Mason County pastures for years before developers started filling them with subdivision houses. Now local resident Ricky Wright uses his tractor to keep the grass neat around the new Wedgewood Estates.

Gazette Online
By Tara Tuckwiller
STAFF WRITER
GLENWOOD - Ricky Wright could have been any other farmer in this isolated stretch of southern Mason County, chugging slowly across the sloping pastures on his old farm tractor in the July dusk.
But the sweet, grassy scent in the air didn't come from fresh-mown hay. Wright and his tractor had just clipped some tall weeds from around the white brick pediments announcing the entrance to the new Wedgewood Estates subdivision.
Just two years ago, the land belonged to one of the huge family farms that still dominate the area. Then city water came through. Then Toyota announced plans to build an engine plant just a few miles away in Buffalo. Then the state started building a bridge across the Kanawha River to that plant, and made plans to turn nearby U.S. 35 into a four-lane corridor to Interstate 64.
Developers snapped up a half-dozen or so working farms and transformed them into upscale housing. Now commuters from Charleston and Huntington are moving into the area just north of Milton, known to the locals as Mason Road.
"They're building these monster homes," said Wright, a local resident who mows the empty subdivision lots on the side. He nodded toward the $300,000 masses of plate glass and sand-colored brick, standing starkly in the fields. "You know it's got to help the economy around here somehow."

Newcomers have boosted business at Smith's Market on Mason Road. Otherwise, they haven't changed the remote area much, said store owner Bob Smith.The area's farm economy has never been able to compete with Point Pleasant, the distant northern county seat. Now some locals, like Wright, hope the subdivision growth will give them economic and political leverage they've never had before.

The newcomers, for the most part, just want a pretty place to live.
"We like open spaces," said Gail Hagen, a Wedgewood resident. "My husband likes open spaces."
Hagen stood on the front step of her year-old house and surveyed the endless pasture land surrounding her.
"Actually, I don't know why people want to live this far out," she said. "It's really bad."
Hagen moved with her family from New York after her husband took a job with Inco Alloys in Huntington.
"I thought we'd have lots of neighbors," said Hagen, who has two teen-age sons. "But it's mostly older people with no kids. We drive the boys all the time so they can play with their friends."
April Jackson, who moved in a few miles up the road two years ago, said she and her husband love the seclusion. They built their house near Buffington Acres subdivision to escape crowded Cabell County and raise their five Saint Bernards.
"When we moved in, we didn't really care about the schools," Jackson said. "We just liked the country."
The Jacksons are having a baby next month, as are two of their neighbors who also moved in during the construction boom. They're all worried about the county's plan to consolidate nearby Hannan High School into a single county school at Point Pleasant.
"Nobody in their right mind would move in here if they knew their kid had to ride the bus for two hours," Jackson said. "This is the growing area. It doesn't make any sense to take away the school."
The growth could stop if Hannan High School is shut down. If the area does keep growing, then Hannan area residents should reap the benefits, Jackson said.
"We know our taxes are going to go up," she said. "We want to benefit, not just have Point Pleasant benefit from our taxes."
Property taxes and prices have already ballooned, said area native Bob Smith. Smith runs the 50-year-old Smith's Market grocery store on Mason Road.
"At one time, this was all 100-acre family farms. Nobody was going to cut them loose," he said. "Now they're cutting them up and getting $20,000 for a lot, and some of them are half-acres."
Business has jumped at Smith's Market in the past two years, since newcomers have virtually nowhere else to shop. No convenience stores or gas stations have followed the subdivisions into the area.
"It's a nice quiet area. They haven't changed it much," Smith said. "Not yet."
The nearest shopping mall is still miles away from Mason Road. Nothing is really close at hand, and Wright said he likes it that way.
"Yeah, it'll change, but hopefully for the good," Wright said. "I hope. I hope."

To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, call 348-5189.

Consolidation hearing delay doesn't dampen Mason spirits

Consolidation hearing delay doesn't dampen Mason spirits
May 14, 1998

Gazette Online

By Tara Tuckwiller
PUTNAM COUNTY REPORTER

POINT PLEASANT - Hours after they claimed victory in the Mason County school board race, consolidation foes were back in the courthouse Wednesday for an injunction hearing to kill a proposed consolidated high school.
Their spirits weren't dampened when Circuit Judge Clarence Watt sent them all home, continuing the hearing until May 20 after school board lawyer John Teare filed a surprise motion early Wednesday.
"I'm still on a high from last night," said New Haven retiree Dorothy Roush, who worked to replace incumbents with anti-consolidation candidates Peggy Huff and Shirley Gue. "I wanted to go through town blowing my horn, but I've gotten this far without getting arrested and I don't want to start now."
Most of the courthouse spectators have been fighting consolidation for years. They lined up to support Gue in her injunction lawsuit this spring after school board members started pushing for a consolidated high school north of Point Pleasant.
Gue only named Mason County school board members in her lawsuit, but Teare's motion says that the state school board and School Building Authority should be defendants, too.
There's one problem with that motion, said Mason County board President David Morgan. The school board never discussed it, much less decided to do it. "I walked in this morning and they had filed their motion," said Morgan, who has voted in the minority on the board against consolidation. "They must have had a meeting last night that I missed."
Morgan lost in Tuesday's election, but anti-consolidation member Darrell Hagley will remain on the board. Together with Huff and Gue, Hagley will be able to outvote member Amanda Clark and new member Jo Hannah Rorrer, who are seen as favoring the consolidated high school.
Morgan said he suspects the election results scared the consolidation advocates on the board, and they want to bring in the state as a defendant in an effort to get the case moved to a Kanawha court.
"I'm no lawyer, but that's a problem for me," Morgan said. "We're supposed to be his clients, and I don't know whether this is good for us or bad for us. I think it's something that should have been discussed. It's major."
Superintendent Larry Parsons, who has worked to push consolidation through, said it's not out of the ordinary for a school board lawyer to act without consulting his clients.
"The board is not consulted routinely by the law firm," Parsons said. "That's the decision the law firm made, and the firm has the latitude to do that."
Parsons said Wednesday that if the new board starts voting against consolidation, he will just switch gears and do what they tell him.
"If the board changes and the direction's different, I'll work just as vehemently for that board," he said. "My job is to work for the board."
Gue's lawyer, Barry Bruce, asked for the continuance so he could review the opposition's argument. As he did two weeks ago when testimony started, Watt told the school board not to move forward on the consolidation plan until the lawsuit is resolved.
Watt, who had postponed the remaining testimony until after Tuesday's election, joked about the outcome with the crowd. "I notice among the spectators some bloodshot eyes. What were you doing last night?" he said. "I take it that there are winners and there are losers. Somebody has said that's all we've got left, is elections to decide things.
"Now go home and get some sleep."

Mason consolidation plan gets OK

Mason consolidation plan gets OK
But parents who oppose combining three high schools vow to block proposalMarch 31, 1998

By Tara Tuckwiller
Gazette Online

POINT PLEASANT - Mason County school officials got state permission Monday to close the county's three high schools and build a new school north of Point Pleasant, but many of the 120 residents who attended a public hearing on the closings said they won't stand for it.
"Here we go again," said Hannan parent Shirley Gue, who has led an anti-consolidation group in the county for three years. "The people of Mason County have said it a hundred times, but for the record, I will say it again. We do not want one high school in Mason County."
Twenty-one parents from Gue's group, which calls itself "Mason County Kids First," filed a lawsuit against the county school board last week in Mason circuit court, seeking an injunction against the consolidated school plan. They allege that board members are violating the 1997 agreement that settled the county's last anti-consolidation lawsuit by not following certain procedures, such as updating bus schedules, before they proposed consolidation again.
Board members want to close Hannan, Wahama and Point Pleasant high schools and build a $19 million, 1,400-student consolidated school about two miles north of Point Pleasant. Residents have repeatedly stalled the county's attempts to consolidate since the state School Building Authority granted $14.4 million for a consolidated high school three years ago.
"We basically heard from the SBA today that if we don't move ahead on this project, it's a dead duck," board member Mary Beth Carlisle said at Monday night's public hearing. "We can't let the people vote on it, and we can't use the money for anything we want. That's a fallacy."
Residents who spoke at the hearing said Mason County is too big for one high school, and they would like to see at least two high schools stay open. School officials since September have been planning a regional high school that would serve 750 students from Mason and Putnam counties.
Parsons and other county officials got permission from the state School Building Authority on Monday to move their planned consolidated high school from a plot the county owns near Point Pleasant High School to a bigger plot outside town, which would cost an estimated $650,000. The authority approved the site change on the condition that the school would serve all Mason County students, Parsons said.
That would seem to rule out a regional high school, but Parsons said it is still a possibility.
"We have reason to remain optimistic about that," he said.
Cindy Ball, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she would send her daughter Jennifer to private school in Huntington before she would let the school board bus her from Hannan to a consolidated high school at Point Pleasant.
"A lot of parents in Mason County work in Huntington," Ball said. "I do, and if my daughter got sick I would be 100 miles away from her. I couldn't pick her up."
The consolidated high school could be finished within three years, Parsons said. Board members will vote on closing the three high schools at their April 7 meeting.
As for the $4 million difference between the cost of the new school and the money Mason County has in hand, Parsons said he's not sure where that will come from.
"We need to look at a variety of sources on that," he said.
If Mason County doesn't start building a consolidated school by next March, the county will have to give up the money, reapply and compete against other counties for funds again, the Authority said Monday.
Putnam County schools Superintendent Sam Sentelle said officials there will continue planning the regional high school.

Mason votes 3-2 to close 3 schools

Mason votes 3-2 to close 3 schools
April 8, 1998

Gazette Online

By Tara Tuckwiller
STAFF WRITER

POINT PLEASANT - Parents and some school board members say they worry that Mason County wants to build its consolidated high school on a contaminated site, but school board members voted Tuesday in a 3-2 decision to close the county's three high schools anyway.
Board President David Morgan voted against the closures. He said officials are trying to rush through a 1,400-student consolidated school north of Point Pleasant, which would be built near a federal Superfund site on land that state environmental officials say may be contaminated.
"As I have jokingly said, what the heck. Two heads are better than one," Morgan said. "I would not want the decision of which of my grandchildren's heads to pat when they do something good."
Mason school officials have been trying to consolidate county high schools for years, and three years ago got a $14.4 million appropriation from the state School Building Authority to build on land the board already owns in Point Pleasant. Citizens stalled the project with lawsuits.
Last week, county Superintendent Larry Parsons got permission from the School Building Authority to buy a different site from a group of local businessmen, and build the school there. The county would pay up to $650,000 for the land and would have to come up with several million more dollars to build the school.
Until 1994, the 65-acre tract the school board wants was part of the Superfund site, where toxic waste from a World War II explosives factory is buried 2 feet under the ground. Environmental officials took the 65-acre tract off the Superfund site, along with about two-thirds of the surrounding land, after conferring with a community advisory board.
The advisory board was headed by John Musgrave, then head of the Mason County Development Authority, now director of the state Lottery Commission.
Musgrave is part of a partnership that bought several hundred acres of the property in and around the Superfund site in 1995, including the portion school officials now want to buy.
Hannan parent Shirley Gue, who has filed for a circuit court injunction against the consolidation, said she was "floored" when she found out the new site was part of a Superfund project until a few years ago. She started researching documents about the site from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense, and put her findings up on an Internet site.
"A site with this much questionable history is a concern for most parents in the county," Gue's site states. "Until a certification is issued by the U.S. Army declaring explicitly this site is contaminant free ... this site should not be considered as a place to put 1,400 students."
Parsons wrote to Pete Costello of the state Division of Environmental Protection, telling him that local residents had expressed concern about possible contamination. Costello has said the site may be contaminated with DDT or other pesticides from a state agricultural test station which operated there for years.
"I was requested to provide a written response to 'assist in eliminating this concern,' " Costello said, quoting from Parsons' letter. "I just said what I've been saying. We don't have reason to believe the property is contaminated, but that does not reflect any analytical sampling work.
"As far as the agricultural contamination, we just haven't turned that page at all. We're not commanding the school board, but the responsible person would turn that page."
Parsons said the county will conduct environmental testing on the site, and will build somewhere else if it turns out to be contaminated. Morgan said the uncertainty about the site makes him uncomfortable.
"I'm not confident with statements such as, 'We think it's clear,'" Morgan said. "That's probably what they said 30 years ago when they buried God knows what there.
"We can't bury our problems. They will eventually come back to haunt us."
Board member Darrell Hagley, who also voted against closing the schools, said he didn't even want to vote Tuesday. He said the board wasn't given time to consider written questions from several residents about the possible contamination, the hours-long bus rides students would face, and other issues.
Parsons said he wants the state school board to vote on Mason County's plan at its meeting Thursday. Gue plans to speak at that meeting, too.
"I'll have to," she said. "I have to try to get them to consider this possible contamination."