Published: August 01, 2008 09:12 am         

Wiley Ford residents try to pinpoint smell’s source

Sewer, abandoned building identified as possibilities

WILEY FORD, W.Va. — Wiley Ford resident Jerry Freeland doesn’t know where the putrid smell in her neighborhood is coming from, but she would like some help in finding and eliminating the source.

“I’ve called the health department, I’ve called the EPA, and everybody passes the buck,” the frustrated Freeland said Tuesday evening during a meeting between Wiley Ford residents and county leaders.

“I’ve been complaining for five years and nobody does anything.

“The smell is so bad coming in my bedroom window every night that I can’t breathe.”

Freeland said she knew there were some problems in the past with sewer gas, but that she thought the situation had been rectified.

“From time to time, there have been problems with gas coming up through the sewer pipes,” County Coordinator Mike Bland said.

“But the health department did come out and look at it and couldn’t determine the source of the problem.”

“The guy at the health department told me, ‘I can’t help you, that’s the problem of the Public Service District,’” Freeland said.

One resident asked if smoke testing the sewers would help determine if the problem is with the sewer lines, and Bland said the county could look into borrowing a smoke tester from the city of Keyser, as it has done in the past.

Some neighbors didn’t seem so sure that the problem is originating with the sewers, however.

Neighbor Edith Deaner wondered if the smell might be coming from an abandoned building located behind the town’s fire hall.

There are a number of feral cats and even dead animals on the property, she said.

Freeland also spoke about the large number of cats roaming the neighborhood.

“I’ve got enough mothballs to kill every moth in Wiley Ford,” she said, noting that the balls are not doing the job of keeping the felines away from her property.

“My flowers are dying because of all the cat pee,” she said.

“Ever since we’ve been meeting here, feral cats have been an issue,” County Commissioner Wayne Spiggle said, noting that stray cats are a particularly difficult problem because there are no laws on the books regarding them.

“Nowhere in the state code is the word ‘cat,’” he said.

He suggested the residents contact the county’s humane officers to obtain a trap to catch the cats.

“I did, and I took about 16 cats to the pound last year,” one resident said.

Other residents spoke of different blighted properties and trash dumps in and around the community.

“I think we definitely need to have the abandoned building checked,” Mineral County Commission President Janice LaRue said as Deaner presented the county officials with a signed complaint.

In the meantime, Commissioner Wayne Spiggle suggested Freeland come to a county commission meeting to discuss her concerns.

“We’ll work on this, and we may even get it solved before you come, but I would invite you to come,” he said.

The next Wiley Ford community meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 30 at the fire hall.

Contact Liz Beavers at lbeavers@times-news.com.