The widening of W.Va. 2 north of Parkersburg from Valley Mills Road to W.Va. 31 will be completed by November 2024. (File Photo)

From Staff Reports

PARKERSBURG — Stories about state government issues and local accidents and crimes were among the most viewed articles at newsandsentinel.com in 2023.

The news article clicked the most times for the year dealt with more than half of West Virginia’s 55 county school systems failing to meet at least one operational effectiveness indicator on the state’s annual Balanced Scorecard.

A report issued by the West Virginia Department of Education showed 25 counties met all requirements for county operational effectiveness indicators of efficiency, while 30 failed to meet one or more requirements.

Although an initial map showed Wood County Schools as being on watch for two indicators, the state later corrected it to show only one, for special education, said Michael Erb, coordinator of communications for the district. The district is in the process of addressing those deficiencies, he said.

The former Simply Amish store at 2905 Murdoch Ave. is shown Sept. 23 after a truck struck it the day before in a crash that killed a motorcyclist. (File Photo)

Most school districts in the Mid-Ohio Valley failed to meet at least one indicator, although Pleasants and Tyler County schools were not on watch for any.

Next was a Sept. 25 story about a fatal accident in which a truck went off of Murdoch Avenue in Parkersburg, causing a motorcycle to swerve to miss it.

Police said the truck went off the road after the driver – Brayden Roux, 18, of Lowell – had a medical emergency and crashed into the former Simply Amish store at 2905 Murdoch Ave. The driver was not injured but the motorcyclist, 32-year-old Andrew Carpenter of Parkersburg, was pronounced dead.

Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board recently said the crash remains under investigation. Carpenter’s father, Parkersburg City Councilman J.R. Carpenter, asked during the Dec. 12 council meeting for additional witnesses to come forward so the family can fill in gaps around the accident and try to move on.

The third most-viewed story was a Nov. 10 article dealing with the ongoing expansion of West Virginia 2 from two to five lanes between Valley Mills Road and West Virginia 31. The $27.46 million project got underway in the spring of 2022 and is expected to be finished by November 2024, state officials said.

It’s part of an overall plan to widen W.Va. 2 to four lanes for its entire length along the Ohio River from Huntington to Chester in the Northern Panhandle.

A Sept. 2 breaking news item about a 21-year-old Marietta man who died after jumping from the Williamstown Bridge was the fourth most-viewed story. Williamstown Police were notified of the incident around 8:15 a.m., and the body was recovered that afternoon.

The article with the fifth most views was posted the same day, a breaking news item about a missing 13-year-old boy. The post was updated later in the day to report that he had been found safe after West Virginia State Police located his biological father, Michael A. Cheek, 38, on Interstate 77 in the Fairplain area of Jackson County. He reportedly took troopers to a residence near the Jackson/Roane County line, where his son was located and placed in the custody of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

Drawing the sixth most views was an April article announcing charges against a Waverly woman accused of shooting and killing a man she said attempted to rape her nearly a year earlier.

Melody Ann Anderson, 49, of Waverly, was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a deceased human body about a week after Robert Marshall Throckmorton was reported missing. A criminal complaint filed in Wood County Magistrate Court said family members reported not having seen or heard from him since approximately May 2022.

The investigation led to Anderson, who had been in a relationship with Throckmorton, and told troopers executing a search warrant at her residence that she shot him and buried his body on her property after he attempted to sexually assault her.

The case has been bound over for grand jury consideration, and Anderson remains in custody at the North Central Regional Jail on a $100,000 bond.

A July 25 breaking news item that Parkersburg High School boys basketball coach Bryan Crislip was resigning had the seventh most views.

Crislip, who held the job since 2019, said he was stepping away to spend more time with his family. He was succeeded by 1991 PHS grad Phil Wilson, who also serves as the school’s girls soccer coach.

Next was a report on West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner responding to a lawsuit by long-shot Republican presidential hopeful John Anthony Castro seeking to keep former president Donald Trump off the state’s 2024 primary ballot. Castro cited the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits someone from holding federal office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the federal government.

Attorneys representing Warner filed a response agreeing with a U.S. magistrate’s recommendation to deny Castro’s request for a restraining order to keep Trump off the ballot. The recommendation said there was no need for a restraining order or injunction because the filing period does not open until Jan. 8.

U.S. District Judge Irene C. Berger dismissed the suit, but Castro filed a notice of appeal earlier this week.

At ninth was a May 23 story about a new majority owner for Mister Bee Potato Chips Co. West Virginia’s only potato chip maker is now under the leadership of Kevin Holden, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Bite Brands, although Parkersburg resident Mary Anne Ketelsen, who took the reins in 2015, remains an owner as well.

Rounding out the top 10 was a rundown of local events for the Fourth of July.