The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia has overturned a 2008 ruling by Judge Steptoe of the Circuit Court in Jefferson Court and rendered the current zoning ordinance null and void. As a result, the court reinstated the 2005 amendments to the Jefferson County Zoning Ordinance.
The result is increased chaos in the Jefferson County Planning Department. This could not have come at a worse time. In less than five weeks residents will commence early voting on zoning for the county, the question: Should they keep the old ordinance, which has now been thrown …

Dale Manuel and Patsy Noland,  Jefferson County Commissioners, announced a special meeting of the commission with the purose of appointing their choice, Sandy Slusher McDonald, for county administrator.
This decision follows the firing of County Administrator Leslie Smith on September 24 by three of the county commissioners (Surkamp, Morgan and Widymyer). Smith is on administrative leave till October 24.
The meeting will be held at 1:00 pm September 29th, 2009 to occur at the Old Charles Town Library Meeting Room 200 East Washington Street, Charles Town.

In an August ruling, Circuit Court Judge David Sanders declared that the names of Jefferson County zoning referendum petitioners should be kept secret and not made open to the public as requested by The Observer through a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request.
Sanders said that the list of petition names was never a public document. It was prepared by a private citizen group and was therefore not subject to West Virginia Freedom of Information laws.
Lawyer Stephen Skinner, who represented The Observer, had repeatedly argued that the list containing the petition …