Jun 14, 2014 5 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:

Study to find ways to clean Dunkard Creek

WAYNESBURG – Greene County Industrial Development Authority discussed participating in a study Wednesday to develop a plan to clean up mine water discharges along the lower section of Dunkard Creek.

The authority was asked to participate in the study by GenPower LLC, developer of the Longview Power Plant, and the West Virginia University Water Research Institute.

The study will focus on developing a treatment system for eight major acid mine water discharges from abandoned mines along the lower six miles of the creek, said Robbie Matesic, GCIDA acting director.

The area is thought to be one of the “highest sources” in Greene County of total dissolved solids, which have impacted not only water quality in the creek but also in the Monongahela River, Matesic said.

The mine water discharges also are highly acidic and harmful to the creek’s aquatic life.

A subsidiary of GenPower, AMD Reclamation Inc., earlier constructed a treatment plant to treat water from the abandoned Shannopin Mine. The company also is developing a separate plant to treat water from the Mon River for its Longview Power Plant.

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Behavioral health unit opens

WAYNESBURG – Last year, Southwest Regional Medical Center launched a $3 million renovation project to expand its emergency room and behavioral health-care services and to create a new specialized surgical care area.

On Friday, part of that renovation was realized and was celebrated during an open house attended by hospital officials and local political leaders.

The new behavioral health unit is now located on one floor after 15 beds from the old unit on the fifth floor were moved to the fourth, joining 11 others and making the unit a 26-bed facility.

“This is a gleaming renaissance for our small county,” said state Rep. Bill DeWeese, who, along with state Sen. J. Barry Stout, helped secure a $1.5 million grant from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to help with this three-pronged renovation.

During Friday’s celebration it was noted that the fifth-floor surgical center renovation project is soon to begin.

Reclamation of Mather gob pile expected to be complete within year

WAYNESBURG – The reclamation of the Mather coal refuse pile could be completed by this time next year, Don Chappel, executive director of Greene County Industrial Development Authority, told the authority board Wednesday.

Mather Recovery Systems Inc., the company reclaiming the 50-acre coal refuse site, began work on the second phase of the project in March and is already about 30 percent completed, Chappel said.

The company has benefited from fairly good weather this spring, Chappel said. It will probably be the weather, he added, that will determine when the project actually is finished.

“Optimistically, the project could be done this fall, but all that depends on the weather,” Chappel said.

Mather Recovery is currently completing another round of seeding on reclaimed areas of the site and is preparing to move to another segment of the pile. “It’s progressing well,” Chappel said. He also said the company should be able to complete the project with existing funding.

The first phase of the massive reclamation project had been funded by a $1.7 million Growing Greener grant awarded to the authority in February 2001. The second-phase funding of $3.3 million, also from Growing Greener, was awarded last September.

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W. Greene leader placed on leave

ROGERSVILLE – West Greene School Board placed the district superintendent on “administrative leave” earlier this week, but board members declined to elaborate when pressed at a workshop meeting Thursday.

Superintendent Ron Fortney will be on leave indefinitely. In the interim, the school board has not decided who will fill his duties.

However, the board met in executive session Thursday with Ken Ganocy, a former superintendent at Southeastern Greene School District who also worked as an administrator for West Greene.

Last month, several board members, along with Fortney, praised the work Ganocy did as interim high school principal. Ganocy filled in for about two months while the district looked for a permanent principal.

Ganocy had served as Southeastern Greene superintendent for five years, retiring in 1997. He also was an assistant principal at West Greene Middle-Senior High School and principal at West Greene Middle School.

Board President Shelia Simms said she could not disclose the reasons behind the board’s decision at a special meeting Tuesday to place Fortney on administrative leave. She also couldn’t reveal if the superintendent would be paid while on sabbatical.

Greene County plans new nursing home

Greene County commissioners unveiled a plan to build a new nursing home to replace the Curry Memorial Home.

The commissioners announced June 8 the county applied to the state Department of Public Welfare for permission to construct a 120-bed facility on a site adjoining the Curry Home.

Curry Home would then be converted into a centralized headquarters for health and human services agencies.

If the DPW approves the application, it would reimburse the county up to $22,000 per bed toward construction costs, which would provide approximately 95 percent of the annual payment on the bond issue to build the new nursing home. Cost of the project is estimated at $2,640,000.

Sugar Grove elementary school will be closed

MAPLETOWN – The Southeastern Greene School District voted to close the Sugar Grove elementary school because of lack of student population.

Supervising Principal George Kozar said the move should save the district some $35,000 a year and can be done without discharging any teachers since three are retiring this year and another is leaving the district.

The 92 students at the school will be redistributed among other schools, with the Glassworks school to take care of students in grades one through four and the Penn Pitt school one fifth grade, two sixth grades, and if there is sufficient space, a kindergarten.

The Bobtown school will have students in grades one through six.