The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

December 22, 2009

Organ Cave appeal filed


The attorney for a group of Organ Cave residents opposed to a recent annexation said Tuesday he had filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court.

At issue is a circuit judge’s dismissal of a civil suit challenging the legality of Ronceverte’s annexation of the Stoney Glen residential development and the roads leading to it through the Organ Cave community. “We’ve requested to make an oral presentation, and that probably won’t take place until March or early April, sometime in the early spring,” Lewisburg attorney William Turner said of the appeal.

Greenbrier Circuit Judge James J. Rowe threw out the original lawsuit in August, ruling the petitioners did not have standing to bring a civil suit, nor did they present “real evidence” of injury caused by the annexation. Turner said in an earlier interview each of those points will be addressed in the appeal to the high court.

— Tina Alvey