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Man pleads guilty in deadly UTV accident

KINGWOOD — A Preston County man pleaded guilty Thursday to DUI with death in the 2018 accident that killed his wife. John David Dietz III, 30, was driving the Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) Aug. 14, 2018, on Red Rock Road, when the accident occurred about 4 p.m. Someone was giving Brieanne Dietz aid when state police arrived within minutes of the accident. A trooper continued CPR, but Brieanne, 28, could not be resuscitated. A UTV is similar to an all-terrain vehicle but with more seats. It is sometimes called a side-by-side. Dietz’s blood alcohol level tested at .163 ...

Newburg Council gets update on Independence water project

NEWBURG — Mayor Edgar Fortney said town attorney Sheila Williams is sending a title of opinion letter to Region VI as the next step in the Independence water project. Earlier, Fortney said all 10 rights-of-way needed for the project to continue have been signed. A title of opinion documents the ownership of property, based on the attorney’s research. Town Clerk Janet Adams asked council if it would consider a website. She said it would allow the town to post notices and allow customers to pay water bills online. The website, through the town’s current billing ...

Local youth club offers family programs for children

As a mother of two children under 4, Tiffany Seldon found it tough to find area programs geared toward her kids. “Unless it’s dance, there’s not a lot to do before 4 or 5,” she said. That’s a big reason The Studio, on Coombs Farm Drive, came to be. Seldon, a co-owner of the ...

Preston asks judge to stop levying fine against chronic offenders

Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston said he’s asked judges at the municipal and county level to stop levying fines against chronic offenders. During an October work session on issues facing downtown Morgantown, Preston said the municipal court alone issued more than 1,600 fines that went unpaid over an 18-month span. Many of these fines were charged to chronic offenders, some of whom had more than 100 interactions with the MPD through the first 10 months of 2019, Preston said, noting the unpaid fines totaled more than $200,000. “I brought that up in October and, come November, I ...

Australia wildfire burns area the size of West Virginia

Amy Hessl, a West Virginia University geographer and paleoclimatologist, who is in Australia doing research for The National Science Foundation, said wildfires in that country have burned an area roughly the size of West Virginia. “The fires are less extreme today as temperatures have dropped considerably in the past few days,” wrote Hessl in an email from western Tasmania on Wednesday — an island state in the southern part of the country — where she is studying tree rings and ice core data from Antarctica in order to understand the last 2,000 years of climate change in the ...

Girl Scouts share 2020 lineup, promote leadership program

Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council, local Girl Scouts and their families geared up for cookie season with Cookie Palooza on Friday at Chestnut Ridge Church. There, they shared the lineup of 2020 cookies — including a brand-new lemon cookie — and how the cookie sale program is ...