Boos & Applause
Applause to all the volunteers who helped to organize the 2017 Elkins-Randolph County Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade Wednesday night. The event entertained a large crowd who came out for the festivities despite cold weather. Applause also to the Inter-Mountain volunteers, including official photographer Tim MacVean, and the other community volunteers who put together the ‘Photos with Santa Clause’ event at the Elkins-Randolph County YMCA following the Christmas Parade Wednesday evening. The Inter-Mountain provided free photos to each family at the event. Dozens of families took part in the event, which has become a local holiday tradition.
Applause to a group of firefighters who came to the rescue last weekend to repair holiday lights and hang them in downtown Elkins in time for the parade and the rest of the Christmas season. Elkins Mayor Van Broughton said he received a call from the Elkins Fire Department volunteering to fix the town’s Christmas lights, which had been deemed too damaged to display this year. The Fire Department used some of its funding to purchase wires and bulbs to make the repairs possible. Jones Fire Equipment of Elkins also donated to the project, and Elkins Truck Service helped install the decorations once the lights were fixed.
Applause to local Elkins businesses for puchasing 4-foot by 4-foot snowflake lights to hang in downtown. Each of the eight lights were purchased by local businesses, said Kathy Vance, who has organized the decorations during each of the past four years. Vance said the lights were purchased by the Elkins-Randolph County Chamber of Commerce, with the assistance of the local businesses, several years ago. She noted that Frontier Communications has typically assisted in installing the light fixtures; however, their crew was working out of Franklin this holiday season, and the Elkins Fire Department worked through rain Tuesday to hang the lights.
Boo to the potentially dangerous — but unfortunately necessary — blasting that will be done this month at the Midland Resource Recovery facility near Philippi, where a pair of fatal explosions occurred earlier this year, killing three people. Officials announced this week that older, obsolete natural gas odorizer tanks at the site must be detonated for safety purposes. The blasting will mean several roads will be closed and residences and businesses within half a mile of the facility will be asked to evacuate. The fatal explosions are being investigated by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Hopefully the investigation will provide some answers as to how this deadly situation came about in our community.