Jul 19, 2014 7 min read

A look at some of the headlines gracing the pages of the Observer-Reporter and Waynesburg Republican this week in Greene County history:

Idol winner hopes to pursue music

WIND RIDGE – Rebekah Wood of Waynesburg won Jacktown Fair’s second annual “Idol” competition last week, besting 30 other contestants to win the $1,000 first-place prize.

“I really enjoyed it. There were some very talented people there and I thought it was a great experience,” said Wood, who will be a senior at Waynesburg University this fall.

“The judges were just wonderful, and so helpful to everyone,” she added, “Brynn Marie (a Carmichaels native) was very encouraging and even offered to make contacts for me in Nashville. I would like to take advantage of future opportunities to pursue music.”

The $500 second-place award went to Chelsea Malone of Morgantown, W.Va., a repeat contestant from last year. Third-place and $300 went to Kyle Cownden of New Martinsville, W.Va.

First and second-place winners also received 10 hours of recording time at Silent Wing Audio in Bobtown.

The competition drew a total of 31 contestants from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, who performed during “audition rounds” each night of the fair, with three or four advancing each night to the final competition for the prize money and recording time.

The contest was again dubbed a success by fair organizers, and there are plans to continue the competition next year when the Jacktown Fair will celebrate its 145th anniversary.

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Waynesburg U. administrator helped wayward couple to safety

WAYNESBURG – The commanding officer of state police Troop B said Wednesday what Roy Barnhart of Waynesburg did in May of 2008 “was an extraordinary act.”

Capt. Sheldon Epstein made that remark moments before he presented Barnhart with a Meritorious Citizenship Award in “recognition of exemplary service and assistance rendered to the Pennsylvania State Police.”

Barnhart, vice president for finance and administration at Waynesburg University, was nominated for the award by Lt. Douglas M. Humble, patrol section commander of Troop B in Washington.

Police credit Barnhart with perhaps saving the lives of an elderly couple from Uniontown, who left their residence in the early evening of May 3 to take a ride and became lost.

When the couple, who suffer from dementia, failed to return home, family members contacted the state police in Uniontown.

It was serendipitous that the trooper assigned to the case was Daniel Barnhart, Roy Barnhart’s son. Following his work shift, Trooper Barnhart spoke with his father on the phone and told him about the incident. The trooper described the vehicle and the couple to his father.

The next day, Roy Barnhart was traveling near Rogersville and saw a vehicle at an intersection that nearly caused a serious crash. It was the vehicle his son had earlier described.

Epstein said Barnhart “acting not as a typical citizen,” followed the car 20 miles into Hundred, W.Va., to an apartment complex where the couple stopped their car.

Barnhart contacted state police in Uniontown and Waynesburg after “coaxing the man to turn off the car and hand him the car keys.”

County taps strategic planner’s expertise

WAYNESBURG – The former manager of corporate strategy and business development at Weirton Steel was hired Thursday by Greene County commissioners to assist the county’s department of planning and economic development.

Adele Armann of Washington will be paid $35 an hour not to exceed $25,000.

She received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from West Virginia University and is working toward a master’s degreee in business administration at Wheeling Jesuit.

As an independent contractor, she will be responsible for project management, strategy development and provide financial analysis services.

“She has an expertise in strategic planning and will identify cost benefits and provide direction to projects the commissioners might want to undertake,” said Gene Lee, the county’s chief clerk.

County leaders increased the size of the department of planning and economic development’s budget late last year, with the intention of revamping the department. Planning and economic development currently operates on a spending plan of little more than $1 million.

In April, commissioners hired Robbie Matesic, a planning and economic development administrator.

Commissioner Pam Snyder, who has advocated an aggressive approach to economic development since she took office, said she doesn’t want to put bandages on the county’s problems with economic development.

“I want to deal with them,” she said.

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Brave man recovering after explosive trip to rest room

BRAVE – John Jenkins doesn’t remember much after he a lit cigarette in a portable toilet July 13, setting off an explosion that left him with third-degree burns on 20 percent of his body.

The accident occurred when Jenkins, 52, sat down and lit a cigarette while he was at work at Paris Shaft, southwest of Blacksville, W.Va., in Monongalia County.

“When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated – the whole top blew off,” said Jenkins, who is employed as a supervisor at North West Fuels Development Inc.

Jenkins, who won’t be able to return to work for several months, is realizing the importance caring neighbors he has in Brave.

“There has been a constant stream coming by,” he said Friday. “They have brought bags of sheets and installed an air conditioner for me,” he said.

Reflecting on the day, Jenkins said, “I can’t tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out, but I rolled on the ground and got up and walked over to the office where we keep jugs of water and dumped water on me.”

He was told that methane gas from a leaky stainless steel pipe running about three feet under the portable toilet contributed to the explosion.

J-M board having problem getting bidders for project

JEFFERSON – The Jefferson-Morgan School Board, for the second consecutive month, failed to receive a bid for the removal of asbestos in the junior-senior high school.

As required by the federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, the district had hired a firm to inspect district buildings and determine if they contained any material made of asbestos.

An inspection of the schools was conducted by Penn Environmental of Pittsburgh. Its report indicated asbestos in a wrap used on pipes in the junior-senior high school’s gym, locker rooms and a utility tunnel under the school.

The report also said the material was “encapsulated” in the wrap and did not pose a danger to students.

Penn Environmental recommended the pipes be inspected regularly to make sure the asbestos fibers remain encased in the wrap and were not being released in to the air.

Hospital faces financial problems

Greene County Memorial Hospital is faced with critical financial problems because of revisions of the Medical Assistance (MA) program and lack of capital improvement funds to take care of badly needed plant improvements.

The far ranging problems, and some possible solutions for them, were outlined by Hospital Administrator James M. Brown at the annual meeting of hospital corporation members.

In discussing the effect of the state-mandated MA program cutback, he said the hospital faces the real possibility of bankruptcy unless something can be done about it.

AS of July 1, 1969, he explained the eligibility standards for the MA program were changed, thereby affecting about 34 percent of those previously entitle to financial aid for their hospital care.

As a result, the hospital will receive only $95,000 of the estimated $170,000 it will cost to give quality care to medical assistance recipients. “How do you pay $170,000 in costs with $95,000 in receipts?” he asked.