The Moundsville Roller Derby is returning!

Nate and Marcy Harler have purchased the building located on 10th Street between Tomlinson and Lafayette Avenue.

They have been working on the building’s interior for several months in hopes of having it ready to open on Aug. 1.

Marcy said she used to live adjacent to the Roller Derby on Ninth Street, and had spent a great period of time there while growing up.

The first occupants of the current building were motor vehicles, and at that time it was known as Overland Garage.

In the late 1930s the building was enlarged to become a Roller Rink, however, its time was shortened because of World War II.

According to Tom Stiles, after the war his grandfather and father purchased the building, and on June 20, 1946, West Virginia Day, it reopened.

For the next 62 years, several different family members owned the Roller Rink.

Tom Stiles sold the building to Calvin Landis who operated the Roller Derby for 10 years.

The building was last utilized for clothing storage.

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Five individuals were added to the John Marshall High School Wall of Fame this past weekend, bringing to 63 the number of people inducted since 2006. The event was held at the Moundsville Country Club.

Two of the inductees, Zachary Amedro and Theodore “Ted” Valentine, were present at the induction, while Alfonso “Pancho” Flores and Michael Shimp Green were represented by family members. John Icard was present to accept on behalf of his late wife, Reva.

There were moments of remembrance for Founding Committee Member Joseph Komorowski and 2006 Wall of Fame Honoree Donald Haskins at the 17th annual banquet and induction.

The introduction of honorees consisted of William Hal Gorby, Ph.D., David Takach, David Parsons, and Erin Parsons. Committee members are Dr. Vic Canestraro, Greg Gellner, Bill Hinegardner, Lisa Kiss, Cherry Pivik, Linda Rhome and Harold Vitalie.

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The second annual Central Sisters’ All-Female Career Fair took place last Saturday at Central Elementary School, and featured a variety of careers from college, trades, and careers that can be obtained straight out of high school.

It was created to promote local female leaderships from superintendents to politicians, and business owners to food management.

As to the Central Sisters, it is an all-female youth mentoring program for 5th grade girls at CES and girls at John Marshall High School.

Following last year’s successful inaugural event, it was decided to hold the it annually.

Allyson Varlas is the coordinator for Central Sisters, which believes in encouraging young females to tackle any career they want.

The Central Sisters program is in its fourth year and promotes healthy female relationships as well as bonding between elementary and high school students.

Central Sisters takes place on Saturday at the school where girls are eligible to engage in a variety of experiences. This year, the girls have made polymer clay earrings from local female owned business Wonderland Creation. In December they made holiday cookies from scratch with one of Central’s cooks, Jessica Snider.

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“Once again, we were astounded and amazed by the variety and quality of the artwork produced by the Marshall County art students, particularly when we considered the limited time and resources often afforded in classroom experiences,” said Betty Cox and Eric Dye, judges of the annual Marshall County Art Students work, held last Saturday.

“The entire exhibit sets a high standard for the talent in Marshall County Schools. We commend both the teachers and the students for their creative genius. These student-artists have demonstrated a competency in composition and technical skill necessary for all their artistic endeavors and are to be commended for their creative vision and maturity at both the middle Sschool level and high school level. This makes a show like this quite difficult to jury, but we were in no hurry, taking our time, considering the art fundamentals: composition/design, color, form, line and value, whether it was a 2-dimensional piece or 3-dimensional work. We found the use of color and line in the Acrylic Painting pieces particularly interesting. We were also impressed with the level of drawing skill.”

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I recently came across a story that I had written pertaining to Coach Jim Crutchfield, who was in the news in recent weeks as his Nova Southeastern team won the NCAA Division II basketball title. Crutchfield began his coaching career at Cameron.

He had started out wanting to be lawyer, but instead ended up in the teaching and coaching fields.

He was planning to attend law school, and already had the necessary books when he received a call from Marshall County assistant superintendent of schools Bob Eaton about becoming not only the basketball coach at Cameron, but also a math teacher there.

The story goes on to state that he had a free day and met with principal Ron Trowbridge in the daytime, and with the Marshall County Board of Education members that evening.

As it turned out, being a basketball head coach was the deciding factor in his taking the job, and that the people in the community played a big part of his staying for 10 years. In the article he stated that truly enjoyed his stay, noting that he found Cameron to be a tight-knit community, and that many of the friends he made then have become life-long friends.

As to his students, one happened to be current Marshall County School Board of Education Superintendent Dr. Shelby Haines.

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American Legion Post No. 3, Moundsville, will be conducting their nomination of officers during the regular meetings of April 3rd and 17th, and all members are encouraged to attend.

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Monarch Stadium Community Night will be returning Sunday.

The public is invited to use the track and field at Monarch Stadium every Sunday in April and May from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m.

No pets will be permitted.

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A celebration of the Cameron Public Library will take place at 11 a.m. on April 22, where there will be guest speakers, refreshments and tours of the library.

The Moundsville-Marshall County Public Library of Trustees invites the public to attend.

For additional information call either 304-686-2140 or 304-845-6911.