Observer Weekly

Observer Weekly May 7, 2026 Jefferson County, WV news & events Last week The Observer broke the news about a data center project near Summit Point. This week we watched a workshop for a project being proposed about 6 miles to the west, in Frederick County VA. What struck us most when watching the video (link below) was the willingness of the developer to offer specific proffers to address noise, setbacks, water usage, and other concerns from the community. It remains to be seen whether data...

Observer Weekly April 30, 2026 Jefferson County, WV news & events Jefferson County seems to have its own chapter of the Little Rascal’s “he-man woman-haters club” judging by the attack advertising aimed at Cara Keys, currently the only female serving on the Jefferson County Commission (story below). We’ll leave it to our readers to decide who is playing Spanky and who is playing Alfalfa in this case. Despite the political games, we occasionally see some glimmers of adults working together to...

Observer Weekly April 23, 2026 Jefferson County, WV news & events The County Commission has made a big deal of how the commissioners have been working well with each other to focus on county business over the past two years. That happy-face gloss faded a bit over the past two weeks as it became clear that political jockeying was going on behind closed doors. There had been hints that Commissioner Steve Stolipher was not happy with Commissioner Cara Keys being on the Planning Commission and...

Observer Weekly April 16, 2026 Jefferson County, WV news & events We hear a lot of talk about how important tourism is to Jefferson County, but this week we got to hear from folks who are actually making it work day-to-day and planning for how it might be even better for the county in the future. Individually the pieces might look small, but when you can connect things together they can have an impact on what’s already a significant part of the local economy. Speaking of local, both the...

Observer Weekly April 9, 2026 Jefferson County, WV news & events A quick preview of what we’re covering this week: The question on the table in Ranson is how to encourage a more balanced mix of commercial development along with the residential development that has boomed in the city over the past several years. In Shepherdstown, the discussion is about fostering community spirit and planning for some inevitable expansion and new housing developments. Although the population growth in...

Observer Weekly April 2, 2026 Jefferson County, WV news & events We spent a lot of time focusing on data centers this past week. After an early morning announcement last Friday by Governor Morrisey that Google has purchased 1,700 acres for a data center in Putnam County WW, we spent the rest of the day tracking down the specific location of the project (a detail that seems to be lacking in the announcements so far). You can see the Observer’s map on our website. We spent some time over the...

Observer Weekly March 26, 2026 Jefferson County, WV news & events Its local budget season in West Virginia. The County Commission as well as the School Board and the five municipalities in Jefferson County all finalize their budgets this month and submit them to the state. In this issue, we highlight early takeaways from the County’s revenue and expense projections for the next fiscal year (below). We’ve submitted a series of questions to county officials and are awaiting responses; once we...