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.

Two Counties, Two Resolutions, and a Town Hall the Power Company Skipped

The Valley Link transmission line — the high-voltage project proposed to cut across the Eastern Panhandle — has now been formally opposed by both of the counties it would run through. Jefferson County’s Commission has passed two separate resolutions against it. Berkeley County adopted its own opposition resolution back on Aug. 6. And on Tuesday night, the Jefferson County Commission held a town hall about it in the Commission Meeting Room at 393 N. Lawrence St. in Charles Town.

Here is the detail worth sitting with: Valley Link was invited and declined. That is not a rumor — it is in the Commission’s own press release, which says representatives “have been invited to attend and have declined the invitation.” So the two-hour session was built around residents speaking about their homes, farms, property, historic sites, and quality of life, with nobody from the company scheduled to answer. The Commission’s stated reason for calling it: Valley Link has hosted an open house, but “many residents continue to express concerns that their voices are not being heard or that insufficient information has been provided.” The full release is on the county site.

The county has also put the maps out. The Commission published a map of the Valley Link study segments — the corridors still under consideration — so residents can see for themselves whether a segment runs near them rather than relying on a description. See the map.

Worth watching: county resolutions are statements of position, not vetoes. Transmission siting in West Virginia runs through the Public Service Commission, and a regional grid operator drives the need case. What two county resolutions plus a company-less town hall build is a record — and records matter later, in front of the people who actually decide.

A Grand Jury Returns an Indictment in the February Death of a Shepherd Student

A Jefferson County grand jury met Wednesday and returned 23 indictments. The one drawing attention locally names Travis Darniel Smith, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Evan Taylor, a 19-year-old Shepherd University student. According to the indictment, Smith is also charged with one count of use of a firearm during the commission of a felony and one count of brandishing a deadly weapon.

Taylor was found dead in the early morning hours of Feb. 13 inside an apartment at University Heights on Hansel Drive, near the Shepherdstown campus. Police say he suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Smith was reportedly arrested the same day after a Shepherd University law-enforcement officer reviewed security footage and moved to detain him in a campus lot; police say a handgun was recovered from his person. Smith is being held at Eastern Regional Jail with no bond.

An indictment is a charging decision, not a verdict. The charges are allegations — Smith has not been convicted. The case is pending in Jefferson County Circuit Court. The Spirit of Jefferson has the grand jury report.

The other 22 indictments returned that day involve other people, and we are not listing them.

The Data-Center Argument Has Moved From “Whether” to “Who Decides”

A public forum in Spring Mills on Sept. 13, organized by local volunteers and sponsored in part by the WV Citizens Education Fund, put environmental scientists and legislative candidates in the same room to talk about the Bedington data-center project. The arguments raised were less about the buildings than about the ground and the grid underneath them: karst geology and what it means for water, roughly a million gallons a day of reclaimed wastewater, per public reporting a panelist cited, and an electricity draw one panelist compared to eight or nine times all the homes in Berkeley County combined. The Journal covered the forum.

The part that keeps coming back, though, is local control. HB 2014, passed in 2025, preempts county zoning authority over certified microgrid districts — which is the mechanism these projects use. That is why a Berkeley County resident who objects to a data center cannot simply take it to the county and expect a zoning fight. Separately, Mountain State Spotlight reported on Sept. 13 that the governor’s 20-year data-center development plan promises community protections that aren’t backed by law, with Eastern Panhandle local officials saying projects move ahead without their input. That piece is worth reading in full.

The picture right now: the projects are moving, the state holds the zoning card, and the venues that remain — comment periods, resolutions, town halls — are filling up. The fight is drawing outside attention too: a national group opposed to rapid data-center growth brought its cross-country bus tour to Berkeley County on Sept. 18 (The Journal). Jefferson County’s “Good Neighbor” workshop on Sept. 28 is the next local venue; see On the Agenda.

What Local Government Is Working On

Charles Town Utility Board was scheduled to meet Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 4 p.m. On the agenda: the Sidewinder raw-water-line permit, folded into the regular meeting after the board called off its Sept. 14 special meeting. That is the three-deficiency permit file we walked through last week — the unsigned stormwater plan, the mismatched erosion-control revision dates, and the missing karst mitigation plan. The board was weighing next steps, which could include hiring outside counsel or a consultant to run an independent investigation.

Jefferson County “Good Neighbor” data-center workshop, Monday, Sept. 28, 6 p.m., Commission Meeting Room, 393 N. Lawrence St. Led by Commissioner Cara Keys, it’s a working session to draft county guardrails for data-center development — water and power use, roads, noise and lighting, emergency services, decommissioning — with the municipalities invited and public comment planned. Charles Town City Council is holding its own HB 2014 work session in the same room at the same hour, per the city’s agenda. The county’s release.

Berkeley County Commission, Thursday, Sept. 24, 9:30 a.m., 400 W. Stephen St. At 10:15, Community Development presents the 2026 Comprehensive Plan update — the document that says where growth is supposed to go. Sheriff Rob Blair is also marking the retirement of Chief Deputy Tom Young.

Charles Town Planning Commission, Monday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m., City Hall. A public hearing on the Prospect Place sketch plan, a completeness review of the Huntfield Phases 9 and 11 sketch plan, a Huntfield bond extension, and an update to the city’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan. Agendas.

Berkeley County surplus parcels: offers due 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30 — 4.25 acres near 3095 Cannon Hill Road (minimum $8,100) and 0.6 acre at Land Back Lane (minimum $1,650). PNN has the details.

Election dates: Berkeley County early voting Oct. 21–31 (no Sundays); general election Tuesday, Nov. 3.

The biggest weekend on the calendar between now and Apple Butter: two festivals, a musical, a rummage sale, an Oktoberfest, and a kidney-donation education day, all between Thursday and Sunday.

Got a tip? Send it over.

The Pikeside Fall Fling above is in this edition because a reader emailed it to us two weeks ago. That is the whole model. Story, event, business, government, school, neighborhood, weird-and-wonderful — if it’s local, we want to hear it. Send us a note at [email protected]. We protect our sources, and we verify before we publish.

Know someone who should be reading EP Digest?
Forward this email. It takes 10 seconds and you’ll be helping us build something great for the Eastern Panhandle.