Welcome back to EP Digest. Every Thursday morning, the best local news, events, and happenings from Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson counties — tailored to what you actually care about. No doom-scrolling, no algorithm. Just the stuff that matters in the Eastern Panhandle. Let's get into it.

Jefferson County Wants Everyone in One Room About Growth

The Jefferson County Commission voted unanimously last Thursday to invite the county's municipalities and its state legislators to an intergovernmental meeting next month on a single problem: the Eastern Panhandle is growing faster than the roads, schools, water and sewer systems, and emergency services built to support it. The Journal.

Here's the arithmetic. Director of Engineering, Planning and Zoning Roger Goodwin laid out where the rooftops are going: in 2025, Ranson approved 942 residential units — against 273 in Charles Town and 315 in the county. So far in 2026 it's Ranson 328, Charles Town 216, county 172. Ranson alone out-permits the county and its biggest city combined.

The tool commissioners keep circling is an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance — though Goodwin noted only Washington County, Maryland runs a strict one nearby, and its setup is hard to copy here. Commission President Pasha Majdi brought a South Carolina concurrency law as a model and invited state Sen. Patricia Rucker. Her read: the Legislature could act, but the ask has to be narrow. “If it's something very general that gives you guys the authority to just start adding fees, adding taxes, changing the metrics of property rights, I think that would be difficult,” she said. Something specific to a specific need of the growth, she said, is doable.

Commissioner Mike Mood flagged the catch: make building harder in the county and developers simply annex into the towns, where it's easier. Which is why this only works if the municipalities show up. Worth watching whether September produces an actual framework — an APFO with teeth, a capacity study, a bill headed to Charleston — or just a room full of people agreeing that traffic is bad.

What Local Government Is Working On

Both counties are now on record against Valley North. The Jefferson County Commission voted unanimously to pass resolutions opposing the proposed Valley North transmission line as currently drawn — joining the Berkeley County Commission, which passed its own resolution against the project earlier this month (we covered that on Aug. 13). Jefferson County has also published an interactive map so residents can see the potential route segments cutting through the county for themselves. Spirit of Jefferson • Observer WV (the map). And the opposition picked up a national name: documentary filmmaker Ken Burns came out against the project in a video posted to the Say No to Valley Link site on Aug. 21, talking about what it could do to historic sites in Jefferson County. For scale, Valley North would carry 765 kilovolts from Putnam County, West Virginia to Frederick County, Maryland; opponents argue the line exists to feed data centers while cutting through homes and farms and raising electric bills. The Journal.

Jefferson County is weighing rules for license-plate cameras. At its Aug. 20 meeting the commission worked through what a local ordinance on Flock-style automated license-plate readers might look like — the kind of camera that logs the plate of every car that passes. Majdi was careful to say the target is the technology, not one company. Delegate Chris Anders, who raised mass-surveillance concerns on Aug. 6, sent over a South Carolina ordinance as a starting point. Commissioners split the job in two: a procurement policy they can set themselves, and a broader ordinance that would take real drafting. Nothing was adopted — counsel Stephen Groh reviews it first. Mood added that Sheriff Tom Hansen has no interest in Flock cameras; the Sheriff's Office uses license plate readers, but limited ones. The Journal.

Berkeley County's prosecutor is headed for the circuit bench. Gov. Patrick Morrisey has appointed Berkeley County Prosecutor Joe Kinser as the next circuit judge for Berkeley and Morgan counties — the 27th Judicial Circuit seat left vacant by the departure of Judge R. Steven Redding. Morrisey cited his “extensive litigation experience” and “focus on supporting local families.” We noted his application back in July; the knock-on is that Berkeley County will need a new prosecutor, its third in two years. The Journal.

Berkeley Springs is pausing new water hookups. The Town of Bath has asked the state Public Service Commission for a temporary moratorium on new connections, Mayor Greg Schene told council Aug. 18. Importantly, there is no water shortage — the Berkeley Springs Water Works plant is simply near the top of what it can filter, at 320 hookups with 25,000 gallons held back for firefighting, and needs refurbishment. “We're maxed out on filtering,” Councilwoman Mary Lynn Hickey said. Already-approved projects keep their hookups, including a Dan Ryan community of 200 homes near Sheetz and a Dunkin' near the DMV. Everyone else goes on a waiting list. Same collision as the Lead, one plant at a time. Morgan Messenger.

Morgan County's sheriff is moving out over mold. The county commission approved a $29,314 contract to remediate mold in the ceilings, offices, evidence room, basement and elevator shaft at the Sheriff's Department on Gayle Drive. Facilities Director Nevin Camp expects a month or two, not a week; deputies will work out of the Dyche Kidwell building at The Pines — the old hospital — in the meantime. “The object of the exercise is to do this once and do it right,” Camp said. Morgan Messenger.

Want to watch the Valley North fight or the camera debate in person? Both run through the Jefferson County Commission, whose next regular meetings are Thursday, Sept. 3 at 9:30 a.m. and Thursday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m., in the Commission Meeting Room at 393 North Lawrence Street, Charles Town (east entrance). County calendar.

A Church That Fed the City, a Lab in Tennessee, and 60 Years at the Track

One Saturday, three meals, a whole city. Deaconess Glenda Tory spent months on a question — how do I actually help people? — and answered it in one day at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Martinsburg. A meal for 50 homeless neighbors, then police, fire and medical crews, then the whole community at the inaugural “It's a New Day Community Luncheon” — fried chicken and macaroni and cheese in the sanctuary, a children's choir, a sign-language dance from Shelia Hands Ministry, the veterans asked to stand. Tory's own Walmart manager, Travis Sugar, had seen her pushing a cart piled with chicken and asked what it was for: “There's Christians, and then there is someone who is Christlike.” Rev. Sherman Lambert would like it to become annual. The Journal.

Oak Ridge came calling. Mason Janney, a Martinsburg High student, was one of 42 students from across the 13-state Appalachian region chosen for the Appalachian STEM Academy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The two-week program — July 11–24, funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission — put him on guided research alongside ORNL scientists. The Journal.

Home from Oslo. Cenia McFarland came back to the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown on Aug. 11 to talk about her year in Norway as the club's outbound Rotary Youth Exchange student, and presented the banner of her host club in Holmenkollen. The Journal.

Sixty years at the same window. Patricia “Ms. Patsy” Kelican has been a mutuel teller at the Charles Town track since 1966 — back when it was Shenandoah Downs and tickets were written by hand. Hollywood Casino honors her on Classic Day: Charles Town and Ranson have declared Aug. 28 “Ms. Patsy Day,” her window gets a brass plaque, and the opening race runs as the Ms. Patsy Diamond Derby. “Very few people dedicate 60 years of their lives to one organization,” general manager Sean Demeule said. The Journal.

Football Season Is Almost Here; Soccer Is Already On

High school football, Class AAAA: two of the state's heavyweights sit right here. Martinsburg went 11–3 last fall and lost the Class AAAA state final; the Bulldogs want back to the title game. WV MetroNews. Just up the road, Spring Mills fell by a single point to eventual state champion Morgantown in a double-overtime quarterfinal, and the Cardinals want back in the picture. WV MetroNews.

High school girls soccer: the season opened with Washington hammering Martinsburg 10–0 in Charles Town without allowing a single shot on goal. Rozlyn McDonald had a hat trick; eight of the goals came in the first half. The Journal. Over in Preston County, the Berkeley Springs girls played Preston to a tie on freshman Maya Souders' first career varsity goal, while the Berkeley Springs boys lost their half of the doubleheader. WV News • Morgan Messenger.

High school girls volleyball: Martinsburg went a perfect 6–0 to win the Country Roads Classic in New Cumberland, beating Wheeling Central 25–21, 25–11 in the final behind 13 kills from Sophia Ray. The Bulldogs are 7–0. The Journal.

College football: Shepherd University's 2026 PSAC slate is set, with Kutztown, Indiana (Pa.), California (Pa.) and Frostburg among the opponents as the Rams open a new season in Shepherdstown. Shepherd Athletics.

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